King of the Pokeman
by TheLonelyAbsol
Summary: (Pkmn HG/SS) Luffy gets transported into the future by Celebi, to the confusing region of Johto. Upon meeting Gold, he decides he will become King of the Pokeman… typical Luffy style. I own neither One Piece nor Pokemon.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Pokemon, or any characters/pkmn!**

So, this is my second FanFiction, and it's based on Pokemon HeartGold. Luffy is Post-Ace-leaving, so he's pretty OOC right now. He's a serious Luffy for once, contemplating what he's going to do and still missing Ace. I promise he'll cheer up... Pokemon do that to people. ^-^ Enjoy!

* * *

Luffy watched the odd green bird flutter in the sky above him. "So bored… when will Ace come back? And Shanks…" He fingered the straw hat on his head, reminiscing over each little scratch and how it was inflicted. Each frayed piece of straw was as familiar as his own gum-gum powers.

The bird dropped closer to the boy, chirping an odd cry as it hovered a few meters above his head. Luffy gazed up at it, growing more and more interested with each flap of the tiny wings. "I've never seen such an odd bird…"

The creature bristled and made as if to fly away, but the boy continued. "…You must be all alone in the world…"

The bird's eyes widened and it dropped closer to Luffy. Intrigued by his words, it perched on his head, humming softly. "Yeah… I thought so. Your eyes are so big, and beautiful. How could there be any others like you that people haven't captured and sold, or…"

The bird hopped down in front of him, shaking its large head sadly. It held up a stubby arm as if gesturing to itself. Luffy stared. "You mean… You're the only one? Ever?" Up close, he could see that it truly was no ordinary bird. It almost reminded him of a bug, with its small wings and short antennae.

"So then… You're even more lonely than me… I'm sorry. How could I be feeling sorry for myself, when you're so cute and lost…" Luffy nodded to himself, thinking up one of his incredibly stupid ideas.

"I know! You can live with me! I'm sure the crazy gang won't mind!"

'Cebi!'

Luffy dropped his fists, which he had pumped into the air with his wild proposal. "What? You're making those cool sounds again? That means you think it's a great idea!"

'Lebi!' The bird flitted upwards, raising its small arms towards the sky in an imitation of Luffy's pose.

"Yeah! We're a team now! Nothing can stop us, Cebi Lebi!" Luffy punched the air, careful not to reveal his gum-gum powers so he wouldn't scare off his new friend.

'Aaaaaaa… BI!' Celebi exploded into a burst light, calling forth its space-time dimension and bathing Luffy in a brilliant glow.

The rubber boy stared, jaw dropping to the ground. Celebi ignored the small detail, concentrating on holding the portal in place. 'CELI!'

"Um, all right, Cebi! If you're sure…" Luffy leapt into the light, allowing it to carry him away, into the blinding darkness where he could forget about Ace and Shanks… at least for the time being. Because now he was Cebi's friend, and he trusted Cebi as he would any other nakama.

…

"Hey, kid! Are you all right?"

Luffy yawned, stretching his arms out as far as he could without alarming normal people. "Yup!"

"…Oh. Well, that's a relief. My mom would _kill _me if someone got killed on our lawn again…"

The rubber boy sat up, looking around at his surroundings. "This is a lawn? What…"

A tan boy wearing an odd yellow-black hat held out a hand. Luffy accepted it, shaking the hand before pulling himself up. "Nice hair!"

The boy grinned, twisting a tuft of jet-black subconsciously. Several other tufts poked out of the front of the strange hat. "Thanks… I do it myself. So, what's your name?"

"Luffy!" Grinning at the strange boy, the rubber kid felt a strong sense of goodness in the boy, and he couldn't ignore it. "Wanna be my nakama?"

The boy gave him an odd look. "No, my name's Gold. Why don't you just name your pokemon 'Nakama'?"

"Huh?" Pokeman? Name something Nakama? Luffy frowned, his good mood dissipating quickly. "No way! If I even knew what a pokeman was, I'd definitely name it something a lot cooler! Like 'Beam'…"

Gold pursed his lips. "You're an odd one… But I guess it can't be helped, if you don't even know what Poke_mon _are. Um… follow me."

Luffy shrugged, trotting after the strange boy. For a moment, he wondered where Cebi was, then pushed the thought away. Even though he had no idea where he was, he decided that if Cebi had brought him to Gold for a reason.

Gold led the rubber boy into his house, normal by most standards, if you didn't count the strange box with little people and monsters running around inside. Or the tall white box that blasted Luffy with cold air, or the black box that practically burned him when he touched it…Yup. Normal.

"You sure are weird," Luffy muttered. "No one I know even has such oddities… Are they created with the power of a devil fruit?"

Gold laughed. "I don't know what you're talking about, but these things are pretty common. You must be from a poor town, like Cinne… Never mind. …Anyway, I just got my PokeGear back from the shop in Goldenrod City. It's pretty nifty. Want to see?"

Luffy accepted the small rectangle uneasily. "What does it do?"

"Well, what else? It tells the time, shows you the map of the world, and lets you call your friends. I hear there's even a new upgrade that will let you listen to the radio!" Gold looked impressed with his inside information, but Luffy had stopped listening at 'map.'

He pressed a few buttons, fiddling around with the device before finding the map of the region. "Wait… where's my town on this?"

"Your town? So are you really from Cinnebar? Gee, I'm sorry… I didn't know." Gold looked guilty, hanging his head with shame for even mentioning the tragic island.

Luffy shrugged, deciding to go with it. It was clear this was nowhere near the East Blue, so there was no point in worrying. After all, Cebi had taken him here… "It's all right, Gold! I don't really care. It's not like I had a real home anyway, just my nakama… urk."

Gold looked terrible, filled with remorse for making Luffy remember his nakama… even though he clearly had no idea what the word meant. "Just forget I ever said anything. Er, come on, Luffy. I think we should get you a pokemon!"

Luffy followed him back out of the house, past Gold's overly-friendly mother. She seemed to be so cheerful because of some adventure Gold was going off on… "Gold, what's your adventure?"

Gold looked back at him, his face lighting up as he talked about his passion. "I'm going to catch all the pokemon in the region! It's all part of Professor Oak's new project with the PokeDex! There are believed to be about 256 pokemon in the Johto region, and it is my mission to collect all of them!"

"That's nice," Luffy mumbled, picking his nose.

"Hey! Will you let me finish?!" Gold stopped walking to stamp a foot angrily. "Since you don't know a thing about pokemon, you should be paying more attention!"

Luffy nodded, doubting the good intentions of capturing creatures against their will. "And what are these 'pokeman,' exactly?"

"…Oh. That's the one thing I forgot to mention! Um, pokemon are creatures that live alongside people, yada yada, helping us and providing companionship, yada yada… And they're all over the place! It's kind of hard to miss them."

Gold stared as Luffy walked right past a Pidgey, two Rattata, and a Geodude. While picking his nose and staring straight at the grass. And mumbling, "I don't see any…"

"Are you kidding?! They're right here!" Gold lifted up a Rattata, shoving it in the rubber boy's face.

"…That's a purple rat thing."

Gold rolled his eyes, setting down the pokemon and lifting up a pidgey instead. "And this?"

"Bird."

"Hm?"

Luffy narrowed his eyes. "Are you kidding? That's just a rock!"

Gold sighed. Apparently, he'd found the one person who was capable of completely ignoring all pokemon… Luffy was not the best person to recruit for Elm's cause.

"Oh! Cebi!" Gold snapped to attention as Luffy held out his arms to let a flying-type pokemon hover out of the sky and snuggle against his chest. "I've been wondering where you were... Are you okay? You look exhausted…"

Gold's mouth dropped open. He'd never seen such a pokemon, but that wasn't the only astonishing thing about the two. No other person had ever been so kind to random wild pokemon, truly concerned for their well-being and good health… no one, that is, other than Gold himself.

"Oh, right! Cebi, this is Gold! Gold, Cebi." Luffy introduced his odd friends to each other, and the two locked eyes.

Gold broke the stare first, looking back up at Luffy nervously. "I see you already have a pokemon, then… That one is rather odd, though. Is it specific to Cinnebar?"

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like Cebi before." Luffy almost added that he'd never seen anything like the purple rat thing, the short bird, or the rock, either.

Gold shrugged. "Let's go see Professor Elm. I'm sure he'll know what Cebi is… And he promised me a pokemon, anyway."

Luffy burst out laughing. "And here you were, trying to lecture me, when you didn't even have a pokeman yourself!"

The other boy's face flushed as he led Luffy back to his hometown. "So what? It doesn't matter. I still know more than you do... and I probably have a better chance of beating the Champion than you, too!"

"Huh? Who's the Champion?" Luffy asked, intrigued.

"Dragon Master Lance. But I hear there's an even better guy, by the name of Red..." Gold shrugged. "But it's not very likely that anyone will ever beat either of them, anyway..."

"What happens if you beat the Champion?"

Gold frowned. "Well, _you_ become the Champion. Or so I've been told..."

"That's enough! I've decided!" Luffy raised Cebi over his head, shouting a promise that could be heard throughout the entirety of New Bark Town. "I will be... the King of the Pokeman!"


	2. Chapter 2

There will be few connections to the One Piece world/characters in this FanFic. We're mainly concentrating on Luffy and his friends!

* * *

Gold watched Cebi fly about the library, while Luffy stretched out his tongue as far as possible whenever the boy wasn't looking. Professor Elm was flipping through dusty old books, trying to find one with the information he was looking for.

"So, you said your name was Luffy. And you're from Cinnebar, correct?" Elm turned around as Luffy's tongue snapped back.

"Um, sure! Are you the old guy Gold said knew loads of stuff about pokeman?" Luffy leaned forwards in his seat eagerly.

The professor frowned. "I'm not as old as I look, but… yes, I do consider myself an expert on pokemon."

"Then why are you making Gold hunt down 256 pokemans you don't know about yet?"

Elm's eyes widened, and he fixed a stern gaze on the rubber boy. "There are new pokemon being discovered all the time, young man!"

"So, you aren't an expert at all!" Luffy grinned cheekily, picking his nose and holding out an arm for Cebi to land on.

Elm glowered at him. Another problem child… "I happen to know quite a bit about over one hundred of them!"

"So, you know anything about Cebi?" Luffy folded his arms on the professor's desk and stared at the books.

Elm cleared his throat. "As a matter of fact, this book holds all the legends and sightings of the pokemon, 'Celebi.' Read up!" He pushed a large red book towards the boy.

Luffy tilted his head left, then right. "Uh… what does it say?"

"You're supposed to read it right-side up, Luffy! And hurry…" Gold pleaded. "You're wasting the time we'll have to choose a pokemon!"

"No, no! It's quite all right!" Elm flipped the book around for Luffy. "I'll give you plenty of time after we finish up. His pokemon is incredibly rare, and I'm deeply grateful I got the opportunity to see it!" He reached out to Cebi, who crawled further up onto Luffy's shoulder.

Luffy picked up the book, turning it over and over. Finally, he slammed it shut back on the desk. "I don't get it."

"WHAT?!" The professor jumped out of his chair and waddled around to Luffy's side. "You don't 'get' that your pokemon is the legendary Celebi? You don't 'get' that it's incredibly hard to find? You don't 'get' that your pokemon travels through time, bringing ancient artifacts and futuristic devices back and forth?!"

Luffy shook his head cheerfully. "Nope!"

"You poor Celebi, forced to belong to this ignorant fool," Elm whispered.

Luffy pulled his friend away from the man's scary face. "Stop it! You're scaring my nakama, and her name is Cebi!"

"Nakama? Cebi? Celebi is genderless! Young man, I'm afraid you don't understand…"

Luffy glared, hugging Cebi close to his chest. "Dern right I don't!"

Gold spoke up, trying to get them to stop arguing. "Luffy, it's all right. The professor is just a nutcase!"

"Oh! Well, if that's all…" Luffy scratched the back of his head, putting a hand on his hip nonchalantly and relaxing immediately.

Professor Elm's face loomed in front of Gold's, larger than the boy's entire body. _"What did you say?"_

Gold grinned nervously, waving a hand and backing away swiftly. "Nothing at all, Professor! It was nothing, really!"

"All right then!" Clapping his hands, the recovered Elm stepped up to an oddly-shaped cylinder. "Time to choose your pokemon!"

Gold leapt up, darting up next to the professor and gazing at something in excitement. Behind him, Luffy kept turning the book around. "How is anyone supposed to read this?"

"Ooh! I want this one!" Gold held up a white ball with a red lid. Luffy looked up at it.

"What's that?"

The professor smiled good-naturedly. "That is a pokeball, a capsule that keeps your friends in a small, confined place where they never see the light of day except for when you pit them in battles against other people's friends until one or all of them faint!"

Luffy blinked. "Seriously? That's so… _cool! _So I could put Gold in one, and he'd have to do all that?"

"Er, no, not quite," Gold muttered. "The professor is exaggerating things a bit. Pokeballs keep your _pokemon _inside, and your _pokemon_ are your friends. I'm not a pokemon… You can let them out to walk with you, too… Surely you have a pokeball for Cebi?"

Luffy shook his head. "Nah. Cebi just came to me!"

"Celebi usually only approaches people to transport them in time," Elm mused. "Luffy, could you explain the _details _of how you met Celebi?"

The boy shrugged. "She came to me, I talked to her, and she turned the sky white! That's all. Then I woke up on Gold's yard…"

Elm paled. "Luffy… what time period were you born in?"

"How should I know?" Luffy began picking his nose again.

Gold looked at the two, realization dawning on him. "Oh, wow…"

"…Ah, well, we'll attend to this matter later!" Elm chirped after a long pause, trying to change the uncomfortable subject. "Gold, is that the pokemon you want? The pokemon that will be your lifelong friend, partner, and companion for the rest of your life?"

Gold did a double take at the ball in his hand. "Eh? Wh-what pokemon is it, exactly?"

"Totodile, a water-type pokemon."

Gold grimaced, dropping the ball back into the cylinder. "Yech, no! Which one's a grass-type?"

"The one on your right. Chikorita, and it evolves into Bayleef and Meganium."

"Those last two look too much like Tropius… I can't stand Tropius…" Gold passed by the ball in the middle and turned to the last one. So who's in here?"

Elm frowned. "My, you're picky… That is Cyndaquil, a fire-type pokemon that can control the flames on its back. And these three are all you have to choose from, so-"

"I'll take Cyndaquil! Yay, friends forever!" Gold twirled in a circle, popping open the capsule and raising the pokemon high. Cyndaquil let loose a high-pitched squeal and fire exploded out of its back, leaving scorch-marks on the ceiling of the laboratory.

Elm tutted nervously. "Careful, now! The only reason I'm trusting him to you is because I have a mission that needs doing…"

"I'll do it!" Luffy offered cheerfully.

Elm paled again. "Er, why don't you just stay here in New Bark Town and try to act inconspicuous?"

"Insconpidicus? What's that? No, I wanna go with Gold!" Luffy raised Cebi high, like Gold and his Cyndaquil. "Cause I'm gonna be… King of the-"

"Yeah, sure. Come on, Luffy!" Gold dragged him out of the lab before the professor could ask for any help with any experiments. He'd seen what happened to Bill…


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you so much for the reviews! And thanks for the suggestion, Guest. I actually already had that planned! ^-^ That was my starter, heh… And I do plan to take Luffy to another game, so that's something we can all look forward to! Probably Platinum, and then Black...

I will try my best to publish a new chapter every so often, so please be patient with me.

* * *

"How long is it going to take for you to think up a nickname?" Luffy groaned, interrupting Gold for the twenty-third time.

The boy sighed. "I told you; his name is Cinders!"

"A _good_ nickname, like Hyperbeam!" Luffy protested.

"Hyper Beam is a _move, _moron!"

Luffy pouted, crouching next to a signpost to try and decipher the foreign writing again.

"As I was saying," Gold continued, waiting patiently for Luffy to finish inspecting the motto of the town on the map, "there are seventeen different types of pokemon in the world. Each one has different strengths and weaknesses against other-"

Luffy had jumped up, his eyes practically popping out of their sockets. "Seventeen?! Cool! I want a rubber-type!"

Gold frowned. "Rubber-type? Who in their right mind would want a rubber-type? I don't even think that exists."

"The old guy said there were new pokemon being discovered every day," Luffy whined, sticking out his bottom lip.

His companion sighed. "I know, but… never mind. We have to get going. Professor Elm wants us to meet this Mr. Pokemon guy, who lives down on Route 30. And that's pretty far from here."

"That's okay! We're still going, right?" Luffy patted Cebi, who hummed contentedly.

Gold nodded furiously, and his Cyndaquil copied him from its perch on his shoulder. "Of course! We owe it to him, for giving us our pokemon!"

"He didn't give me Cebi…" Luffy grumbled, picking his nose. The Celebi chirped, floating about his head.

Gold shrugged, starting down the path to Route 29. "Whatever. You already said you'd help, so let's get going."

"Where are we going?" Luffy asked, falling into step next to him.

"I just told you! We're going to… aw, never mind. Are all the people from your time as stupid as you?"

Cebi chirped angrily, but Luffy shrugged. "Maybe! Which way to the pokeman house?"

"…Just follow me. And I must warn you, there are pokemon in the tall grass around here. They'll jump out at you, and you might have to beat them up." Gold rubbed the top of Cinders' head. "That's what these little guys are for!"

Walking right past him, Luffy marched into the grass and picked up a Rattata. "Which way to the pokeman house?"

The purple rat thing pointed to the left, squeaking merrily. "Thanks," Luffy said seriously, placing it back and walking off in the completely opposite direction.

Gold gaped at him, spinning the boy around so they could walk together. "What… how did you do that?" His Cyndaquil cocked its head in a similar look of confusion.

"Pokeman are companions, right?" Gold nodded. "And you said they help us, right?" He nodded again, seeing where Luffy was going. "Then why should we beat them up?"

Gold sighed. "If only it was that simple. You see, some pokemon are not so friendly. Those pokemon won't help you. In fact, they'll try to beat up your pokemon, whom they're very envious of because they have a trainer."

"Then I'll make them _mine_!" Luffy grinned, and Cebi tweeted in agreement.

Gold felt like face-palming. "Come on, Luffy…"

"Hold it right there!" A voice called. The two boys turned to see a tall girl with two weird pigtails running towards them. "I haven't showed you how to catch pokemon yet!"

"Who's that weirdo?" Luffy whispered to Gold, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

The other boy groaned. "That's Lyra, the most annoying girl in the world. She managed to get a pokemon out of Professor Elm long before me…"

"So she's bad?" When Gold nodded, the rubber boy grinned. "So you need me to get rid of her?"

Gold nodded again, assuming his friend would distract her so he could make a getaway. He was not expecting the Gum-Gum Bazooka.

"Gum-Gum…" Luffy stretched his arms backwards, startling the onlookers as he gripped a tree ten meters away for support. "BAZOOKA!" He cried, snapping his arms forward and catapulting Lyra well into the river of Route 27.

Gold staggered backwards, his Cyndaquil squeaking fearfully. "Luffy… What did you just…"

"I'm a rubber boy!" His companion proclaimed, sticking a thumb towards himself proudly. "When I was little, I ate a Gum-Gum devil fruit and now I can… Hey! Where are you going?! A race? Ooh, can I race, too?"

Luffy dashed after Gold, who was running for Cherrygrove City as if his life depended on it. "Stay away from me, freak! You're going to kill me, aren't you!? All the people from your time must be messed up, too! You probably kill each other, just for the fun of it…" Gold stopped running and screaming at the same time, finding it hard on the lungs. Luffy was nowhere in sight by now, so the boy assumed he had lost him.

He walked the rest of the way to Cherrygrove, panting heavily and checking over his shoulder every five seconds. Cinders whimpered from his shoulder, keeping a lookout on the left and right.

"I beat you," Luffy laughed from where he was leaning against the PokeCenter. "You don't run very fast. It must be hard, in those weird shoes… Here! That old guy over there gave me some running shoes, but I already have my sandals. You can have these instead."

Luffy dropped a pair of sneakers into Gold's trembling hands. Cinders shivered, ducking his head to avoid eye contact with the boy.

"What's wrong? Why is everyone staring at me like that?" Luffy frowned. "Haven't you ever seen a rubber guy before?"

Gold shook his head, backing away from him. "No… that's not normal at all! You're a monster!"

"Huh? But you're… Oh, right… You never agreed to be my nakama… Then, you can have this map card for your PokeGear. I can't use it anyway…" Luffy stepped back from Gold, wiping his face before the boy could see that he was crying. 'Monster' rang in his head, painfully reminding him of the Time Before Ace. "I'll go be… King of the Pokeman… by myself…"

As soon as the boy took off running, Gold felt a little bad. But at least the freak still had Cebi…

'Cebi,' the Celebi chirped from her perch on Gold's other shoulder.

"Eh? W-what are you doing?! You're supposed to be going with him!"

Cebi shuddered, pantomiming Luffy's hands stretching out and knocking Lyra away.

Gold looked back at Luffy's receding figure. "But he shouldn't be going out there without any pokemon…"

Professor Elm whizzed past him, blowing Cebi off his shoulder and snuffing out Cinders' flame. Zooming after Luffy at a supersonic speed, he caught up to the sniveling boy in seconds. Cebi hopped up to Gold's hat in alarm, chattering unhappily.

"Yeah… that's why… It's almost as if Professor Elm has a sixth sense for whenever someone tries to walk in tall grass without a pokemon." Gold sighed. He'd tried the same thing as Luffy countless times before, and learned what happened the hard way.

Cebi watched Elm chew her friend out and march him back to New Bark Town. Gold prodded her gently. "Are you going with him?"

She shook her head, and slowly floated up into the air. Humming the temporal song she'd learned from Dialga, she opened a portal that would take her back to its tower. It pained her to do it, but orders were orders… With one last chirp, she flew into the small oval.

Luffy looked back just in time to see his friend disappear into the light, and a final, lonely tear slid down his cheek. "Goodbye, Cebi."

* * *

Hey. You people who quit reading because Cebi leaves… May I point out Rob you that the story isn't over?

Yeah, it's not. Why don't you read the rest before leaving the crappy reviews? This is a Fanfiction. Made by me. I'm sorry if Cebi's leaving was too hard for you to handle, but she's a-coming back someday…


	4. Chapter 4

Ah, I'll start writing my chapters in advance, so I can publish daily. Any objections? Good; I wrote this chapter yesterday!

* * *

Luffy yawned, waking up from his nice, if not short, nap. Elm was still jabbering on in front of him, completely oblivious to the fact that Luffy had already fallen asleep and woken up again three times. "...And that's why I don't want you walking in the grass without a pokemon!"

"All right. So, can I have a pokeman, then?" Luffy sat forward in his chair, all traces of sleep gone from his face.

The professor looked uncertain. "Well..."

"You let Gold have one! And if you don't give one to me, I'll just go back out there again!" Luffy crossed his arms, looking quite the stubborn Mankey.

Elm sighed, standing up and walking over to the odd cylinder. "...All right. But you must take _extremely _good care of it. These are very rare pokemon..."

"I promise, Professor Old Guy!" Luffy stepped up to the cylinder and weighed the two remaining pokeballs in his hands. "Hmm, this one's lighter. What's in here?"

Elm adjusted his glasses and popped the ball open. A small green oval with legs hopped out, sporting a large leaf on its head. "Ah, so you want Chikorita, the grass-type pokemon?"

Luffy nodded eagerly, his eyes shining with amazement. "Yesh! I want this one!"

"Nickname?"

"Hyperbeam!"

Elm took off his glasses and regarded Luffy critically. "You know Hyperbeam is a move, right?"

"Yesh!"

The professor sighed. '_Why me..._' "And Chikorita is more commonly known for its use of the move 'Solarbeam'?"

The boy cocked his head and shrugged. "So?"

"I suppose it _is _your pokemon... Hyperbeam it is, then." The professor picked up the new Hyperbeam and handed him to Luffy. "Take care, and stay away from Gold."

The boy was alarmed. "Why?! He was almost my nakama..."

"Were you listening to any of what I just said?! Chikorita is a grass-type, and any fire-type moves from Gold's Cyndaquil will have a very strong effect!"

"Oh. I don't care," Luffy scoffed, waving his hand in a pish-posh attitude. "Cinders wouldn't hurt me, or any of my nakama!"

Elm groaned. This kid really was clueless... The sooner he got out of the lab, the better. "...Fine, then. You're all set! Get going!"

Luffy was practically shoved out of the lab, with Hyperbeam right behind him. Without even warning the boy about Falkner, Elm slammed the door shut and returned to his desk.

"Hyperbeam...? Which way to the pokeman house?"

…

Gold trudged up the pathway to Mr Pokemon's house. He hadn't used the running shoes or the map card for his PokeGear that Luffy had given him. Not that he didn't trust the freaky, stretchy, monstrous boy, he just... didn't trust the freaky, stretchy, monstrous boy.

At present, the Metapods he kept stumbling over were driving him insane. Cinders would scorch them with Ember, but there were just too many! They'd already made two trips back to Cherrygrove City to heal his PP.

At last, Gold stood in front of the house. After stealing a pink apricorn and putting it in his new Apricorn Box, he opened the door and stepped inside.

"Yes, and I could have sworn I saw Celebi..." An elderly, bearded man paused in his conversation with a young hiker and turned to glare at Gold. "Do you _mind_? Who said you could enter a house uninvited?"

The young hiker hopped up and ran to the boy before he could crawl away in defeat. "Oh, but he _was _invited, yes yes! You are Gold, correct?"

"Yes, sir! And Professor Elm told me to-"

The elderly man laughed out loud. "Elm! That little punk! So he's taken on a new recruit, eh? Well, good luck, kid! You'll need it, if you ever want to beat my Red and Blue!" He strutted out of the house, chuckling to himself.

Gold watched him go, a look of awe on his face. "Red? Blue? Was that really..."

"That was Professor Oak, yes. A little eccentric, yes. Crazy, maybe. Expert on pokemon, no." The hiker ushered Gold inside, taking an egg off his storage shelf. "And here is your parcel, yes. Mysterious, yes. Intriguing, absolutely! Take it, please do! Deliver it, yes yes!"

"Stop talking like that, yes," Gold muttered to himself, accepting the almost weightless egg from the oddball. Taking that as his leave, he ran for the door. Cinders darted after him, not wanting to be added to the shelf of sad pokeballs.

…

"That was mean!" Luffy yelled, glaring at the red-haired boy as he hugged his nakama to his chest. "Hyperbeam never did anything to you!"

The boy sneered. "But I can still kick it, if I want to! After all, you punched me..."

"Only because you shoved me away when I tried to talk to you!" Luffy huffed, his anger rising.

The other boy shrugged, walking back to the window of Elm's Lab. This served only to further infuriate the dangerous boy he had picked a fight with.

Luffy gave him another Gum-Gum Pistol, this one more powerful because of the greater distance between the boys. The redhead tumbled to the ground, blood pooling around his busted lip.

"But you hurt my nakama!" Luffy cried. "You can't do that!"

The boy stumbled to his feet, a wild look in his eyes. "I didn't come all the way here on a surfboard to have my plans foiled by a weak brat like you!"

"Oh, yeah?" Luffy set Hyperbeam down and raised his fists. "You want some more?!"

The boy backed away cautiously. "Erm, no... How about you wait until I get a pokemon?"

Luffy sat down and put his Chikorita back on his lap. "All right! Go on inside. I'm sure the old guy will let you have one of his!"

"No way!" The redhead shook his head, his long hair swishing back and forth. "I can't! He'll recogni- I mean, I don't think he'd let me. He's really cruel..."

Luffy nodded slowly. "I know what you mean. Then, I'll just have to ask him for you!"

"Would you... really do that?" The boy was still distrustful, after the strange punch he'd taken that didn't seem possible from such a distance.

Luffy grinned. "Of course! You should have a nakama, just like everyone else! The old guy would have to be _ really _mean to deny you a nakama!"

"What is a... nakama?" The boy asked, shaking his head and staring at Luffy in confusion.

The rubber boy frowned. "You don't know what nakama are? They're like your family, your very own best friends!"

"...Friends?"

Luffy blinked. "You don't... have any friends? We really need to get you a pokeman!"

"Thank you, strange boy," he whispered, stepping forward and clasping Luffy's hands tightly. "My father would never let me out, and never let me see anyone, not even my own mother! All I ever knew was him... And that blasted Pikachu! If you get me a pokemon... I will be ever so grateful!"

Luffy pulled his hand away, stretching it as little as possible after his last friend's reaction. "Sure, of course I'll get you that last pokeman! It's a cute little blue one, and I think she really wants a home..."

"I have no home to give her, unfortunately. I won't return there, not until I have become a powerful trainer, surpassing my own father!" The boy's eyes glinted angrily, and he shook Luffy's hand. "Thank you for helping me on my path to greatness. Tell me your name!"

"I... I haven't even helped you yet! Whoa, you must really want a pokeman... All right then! My name's Monkey D. Luffy!"

"...Silver."

Luffy nodded and started for the door. "Hey! What are you doing?" Silver cried. "He'll still recognize me!"

Luffy turned to look at him and crossed his arms. "What did you do that he'll recognize you for?"

"...Nothing. It's just..."

"Then why don't we go through the window?"

Silver looked ready to slap him. "Why do you think I've been standing in front of here for hours?!"

"Huh. I don't know." Luffy shrugged and used Gum-Gum Bazooka to break through the window. Though the pain was intense from the little shards of glass digging into his skin, he didn't care. It was for a nakama...

Silver jumped about three feet in the air. "What are you_doing_?!" Your hands... Doesn't that hurt?!"

"Oh, you're worried about me?" Luffy asked, bouncing back over to the boy. "That's great! See, you're changing already!"

Silver frowned. "What do you mean? Of course I'm worried about you. You told me nakama are friends, and pokemon are nakama... And you're clearly a pokemon!"

"Huh? Of course not! Shishishi! That would be really weird!" Luffy grabbed his lips, spreading them out as far as possible in his trademark example of his abilities. "I'm a rubber man!"

The other boy nodded slowly, thinking to himself. "A rubber-type pokemon... Well, there's a new pokemon being discovered every day!"

"You're ignoring me..." Luffy groaned, getting bored in a time span of two seconds. "All right then! I'll go get your nakama!"

Silver kept musing, contemplating the things the obviously legendary pokemon had told him, taking his words to heart. Only a legendary pokemon would be capable of talking... But what a strange cry! 'Shishishi'? What was that supposed to resemble?

"Got it!" Luffy hopped back outside, cupping a small red-and-white ball in his bleeding hands. "Now come on, open it up and meet your nakama!"

"My friend for life," Silver whispered, taking the ball and popping it open. "And I've already decided on a name! Come out... FIREBALL!"

The Totodile rolled around in the grass, looking up at the boys in confusion. "Toto?"

"Oh," Silver muttered, quite embarrassed. "You're not a... never mind. We'll just call you Toto!"

Luffy clapped, pushing shards of glass even further into his skin. "Welcome to the family! Here, Hyperbeam wants to get to know you!" He pushed his Chikorita towards the pokemon, and they sniffed each other for a while before romping around in the grass.

"So cute," Silver squealed, watching his Toto tackle Hyperbeam playfully. "I promise, Toto! We'll become the strongest! Just you wait and see!"

Luffy nodded seriously. "You too, Hyperbeam. We'll beat the Champion... and I'll be King of the Pokeman!" Hyperbeam chirped its fierce, high-pitched cry, waving its leaf about proudly.

"Yes," Silver affirmed, gazing down at Toto, "so now it's time to train!"

"Let's go!" Luffy cried, running for the tall grass with Hyperbeam at his heels.

Silver frowned. He leaned into the broken window of the lab to grab two red rectangles, pulling himself back out before the Professor saw. "Wait, Luffy! You'll need one of these, and you might want to visit Cherrygrove first..."

"Why?" Luffy cried, jumping up and down as Hyperbeam beat up a Rattata.

Silver rolled his eyes at the pokemon's complete ignorance. "You're still hurt! We need to get you to a PokeCenter right away!"

* * *

Yeah! Sudden change of character on Silver's part! I just don't want him to be the bad guy in this FanFic... though Gold's still my favorite! ^-^ Any guesses as to who the redhead's father is? ^-°

And... the PokeCenter is definitely going to be interesting!


	5. Chapter 5

Aw, thanks so much to Guest and Ddragon21! Luffy is around age 15 in this FanFic. But you know how Luffy is... He looks age 9, the same as Silver and Gold... and still extremely childish!

It's so nice to have the same number of reviews as the number of chapters, by the way... And I notice someone took me off their favorites... no hard feelings! If this story isn't for you, it isn't for you! _ you'll miss out on a whole lot, though..._ ^-^

* * *

Silver folded his arms, glaring at Toto. "Come on, surely you can do better than that!" He looked to Luffy. "You're a pokemon; tell him what to do!"

"Well, _ you're_ the one with the PokeDex. Don't you know what moves he has?" Luffy watched in delight as Hyperbeam tackled a pidgey for a 1-hit KO.

Toto squealed in excitement, watching Hyperbeam grow stronger. Silver rolled his eyes. "No. The PokeDex tells me nothing about moves."

"Then it's useless," Luffy decided, chucking his own into the tall grass.

Silver yelped, immediately jumping in after the device. "What are you doing?! Do you even know what this is?!"

"Yup! Useless!" The rubber boy accepted his Dex back from Silver and threw it away again.

'_ It must be because he's a legendary pokemon. He has no use for type advantages or information on others because he already knows all..._' "All right, then, Luffy! Will you teach me all you know without the use of this PokeDex?"

Luffy gave him a blank stare. "Uh, my favorite food is MEAT!"

"Huh? I'm talking about pokemon!" Silver glared at the boy, while Toto began evolving next to him.

Luffy puffed up his head, thinking as hard as he could. "Cinders could knock out Hyperbeam!"

Silver pocketed the two PokeDex's. Someday, that stupid pokemon would need one. He'd never heard of a pokemon becoming a trainer, and this was probably why. "I get it, I get it. Let's keep going. Come on, Toto! Luffy's still... Toto?"

Toto roared, waving her longer tail back and forth. Her mouth had grown considerably, and her long fangs were something even Luffy couldn't scoff at.

"WHOA! Cool! Silver, how'd you do that?!" Hyperbeam jumped up and down next to his master, suddenly more in awe of Toto than the previous Totodile had been of him.

Silver pulled out his PokeDex, scrolling through the list of pokemon. Arriving back at the top, he looked up at Luffy. "She's evolved!"

"Evolved? What's that mean?" Luffy's head tilted all the way to the side.

Silver scanned the definition of his pokemon's new form. "Just that they look cooler."

"It works!" Luffy laughed, hugging Toto tightly. "OUCH!"

"...And that they like their trainer more." Silver highly doubted this was true, but Luffy had almost killed Toto with one snake-hug. Best not to take any more chances...

Luffy nursed his bite-wound. "Yeah, okay. How much farther to Cherrygrove City?"

"We're almost there, actually." Silver checked his map. "Should be right around the corner..."

Luffy shot ahead, Hyperbeam held tightly in his arms. "GOOOOOOLD! I'm back, Gold!"

"Who's Gold?" Silver frowned, thinking of an acquaintance of his father. "Is he..."

Luffy sat back down in front of him after zipping around the entire city. A huge pout was on his face. "He's not here..."

Silver rolled his eyes, dragging the three pokemon to the PokeCenter. "Of course not. If he released you, that means he doesn't want you anymore!"

"He doesn't..." Luffy's eyes swelled up with tears. "But I thought..."

Silver slapped him, trying to get the old cheerful Luffy back. The Luffy that had shown him the friendship of pokemon. If this Gold guy had released him, he clearly wasn't a good friend for Luffy.

He then proceeded to pull the sniveling boy through the door. Luffy's leg caught on something, and he stretched all the way to the counter.

"H-hello," the nurse stuttered, looking around Silver at the leg closed up in the door. "W-welcome to the Pokemon Center. Is... something the matter with your... Mankey?"

Silver nodded sagely, realizing the whole center was staring at him; from the trainers on the main floor to the Union nurses upstairs. "Yes. Please heal his hands."

"Why, it almost looks like damage from Razor Leaf!" The nurse cried. "But... I see glass! Dear, I'm afraid your pokemon will need surgery. You should not be letting him play with glass!"

Silver rolled his eyes. "I know, but he's so independent. And his nature is almost surely 'Naive.' Just take out the glass, and he'll be fine."

"If you say so..." The nurse took a pair of tweezers out of her pocket and began removing the shards from the boy's hands. Luffy twitched with each piece she pulled out, but Hyperbeam licking his face calmed him down each time.

A boy walked into the PokeCenter, giving the leg an odd look. He traced it up to Luffy's face. The rubber boy grinned at him, waving a free, bloody hand. "Hey, Gold! Long time no-"

Pulling his cap further over his eyes, the boy turned around and walked back out the door.

…

Gold shivered, gripping Cinders' pokeball more tightly in his hands. "That was a close one... Good thing you were in here, eh, Quilava?"

Cinders popped out of the pokeball, weaving its Furret-like body around and in between Gold's legs. The boy patted his head lovingly, careful to keep his fingers away from the new fire. "Come on. We have to take this egg back to the Professor."

Bypassing the PokeCenter, the two friends continued down Route 29. Cinders easily blew away the rattatas and pidgeys with one hit of Ember or Flame Wheel. Gold was ever so proud of his friend's evolution. He didn't want Cinders to evolve into anything else.

Arriving back in New Bark, they headed straight for the lab. Gold noticed a gaping hole in the side window, and drops of blood sprinkled around it. What had happened while they'd been gone?!

He stepped through the door, knocking beforehand as he remembered Professor Oak. A policeman stood at the back of the lab, close to the shattered window. "Ah! Is this the criminal, returned to apologize? He has an evolution of a missing pokemon, does he not?"

"Yes, but..." Professor Elm began, tugging at the officer's coat.

The man threw back his head and laughed. "I have captured you! Put your hands up and don't move a muscle! Go! Magnezone!"

He threw out an electric-type pokemon. The Magnezone began crackling with electric energy, and Gold felt sharp stabs of pain lace though his body. Before long, he was immobilized by the formidable pokemon, and found himself completely incapable of moving.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" Professor Elm cried, rushing forwards with a Parlyz Heal. "That's my future Champion you're taking into custody!"

The Magnezone raised the voltage, zapping Elm away from Gold. "No, this is a dangerous criminal masquerading as your trainee. Stand back - he's extremely dangerous!" On the outside, the officer was stern and composed. On the inside... he was singing and tap-dancing. '_Yes! I finally caught a criminal! I don't care who it is, this case is _closed! _I'm sure to get a raise now!'_

Cinders leapt at the man, gripping his pants leg firmly with his teeth. With a roar of indignance, he flared up the flames on his head. The officer's pants were smoldering in moments.

"Oh, look!" Professor Elm cried. "The pokemon says you're a liar!" He kicked the Magnezone with a karate skill he hadn't realized he possessed, and ran up to Gold to administer the medicine.

Gold dropped to the ground, shivering violently. Sparks flew from his fingers, and he felt like puking. Exhaustion quickly overwhelmed his body, not used to pokemon attacks. Still shaking, he closed his eyes and slept.

…

Luffy hopped to the door on one foot, leaving a small pile of glass with the nurse at the counter. "Come on, Silver! That was Gold, I'm sure of it!"

"And I'm sure he didn't want you," the redhead muttered. "Didn't you see the way he walked right out as soon as he saw you?" He twisted Luffy's foot out of the doorway, and the boy sighed in relief.

"Yeah, but I'm sure he was just busy with his mission from Professor Elm." Luffy picked up his healed Hyperbeam and strode down the path. "He'll want to see me when he's done."

Silver trotted after him, gazing longingly at Route 30. "But why are we going _back_? Didn't we just steal a pokemon?"

"Oh, yeah," Luffy chuckled, pitting Hyperbeam against a rattata. "I'm sure they'll forgive us!"

"F-forgive us?" Silver looked down at Toto, who shrugged.

Luffy nodded. "Yeah. It means to not hold a grudge against someone for doing something bad!"

"That's never going to happen," Silver mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets. "They'll hate us 'til the day we die."

Luffy grinned, watching another 1-hit KO. "No, they won't! Who taught you about making mistakes?"

"...My father."

"Huh. Sounds like a pretty rough guy. My brother Ace, he'd always forgive me! After beating me to a pulp..." Luffy grinned, laughing to himself. "I can't wait to see him again!"

Silver frowned. Pokemon had siblings? What kind of pokemon could this 'Ace' be? It sounded like a steel-type... "Where's Ace right now?"

Luffy shrugged. "Not here, that's for sure. Unless this is the Grand Line?"

"Nope. It's still Johto." Silver sighed. Where on Earth had this pokemon come from?

Luffy ran ahead, catching a glimpse of the Lab above the trees. "We're almost there! Come on, Hyperbeam! You gotta meet my friend. He's so cool, and loves pokemans!" The Chikorita bounded after him, chirping with excitement.

"Wait, Luffy... Look!" Silver pointed ahead of them, to a policeman stumbling out of the Lab. "That man... if he sees us...!"

Luffy marched up to the officer. "Have you seen my friend Gold?"

"That depends, little boy," the officer countered. He was in _such _a bad mood right now... "Do you know who stole the Totodile from this lab here?"

Despite Silver making a finger-slice on his neck next to him, Luffy grinned and nodded. "Yesh! That was me!"

Silver turned pale, while the policeman just stared at him in amazement. "Really? So, this is the pokemon?" He asked, pointing at Hyperbeam.

"Nope," Luffy chuckled. "That one's mine. Professor Elm gave him to me! I stole Toto, and gave her to Silver." He gestured to the trembling boy next to him.

The officer frowned. "Well, I can't just take away your pokemon, boy. It wasn't your fault." Silver looked up cautiously. Was this what was called... forgiveness?

"So, I'll just arrest this guy! Go, Magnezone!" Throwing out a pokeball, the policeman pointed at Luffy and commanded a Thunderbolt.

Silver screamed as lightning washed over Luffy, and the pokemon inside the blast made no sound. Was he... had he been knocked out? Killed?

"That tickled!" Luffy laughed, rolling about on the ground. "Do it again!"

Engaged, the officer used Thunderbolt again, then Shockwave. Neither move had any effect... other than Luffy giggling and thrashing about on the ground. "What is going on here?!"

"He's a... he's an independent rubber-type legendary pokemon," Silver mumbled.

The officer glared at him. "What was that? I didn't quite catch what you said."

"He didn't throw it," Luffy giggled, sitting up. "I'm an independent rubber-type legendary pokemon," he repeated, hurling his PokeDex at the man's head.

The officer rubbed his scalp indignantly. "Nonsense! I've never heard of such a thing! ...And you will pay for that!"

"What, the window? I don't have any beli on me. Sorry." Luffy shrugged, standing up and walking to the lab.

The officer's head turned a dark red. "That... That _criminal_! The government will catch you, yet!" He yelled at Luffy's receding figure.

The rubber boy giggled. "Cool! I'm a pirate! Thanks, mister!"

The officer screamed in rage, calling out his Pidgeotto and flying away to notify his superiors of the new criminal.

Silver shuddered. Was this really the safest pokemon to be hanging around with? They were already wanted by the government... as land pirates.


	6. Chapter 6

Ddragon21... of course! What kind of FanFiction writer would I be if I left the pokemon behind? You're going to start seeing some really cool stuff here. You gave me a really great idea! ^-^

And thanks Guest, for your kind reviews. I hope I can live up to your expectations!

Thanks again, Ddragon21 & Guest! ^-^

* * *

Gold moaned, rolling over and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His whole body was tingly, and his mouth was dry. What had happened?

"Gold, are you all right?" A gentle voice in his ear showed more concern than his own mother when Gold had broken his arm.

He blinked, letting his eyes slowly focus on the figure leaning over him. Straw hat... creepy scar... odd silver eyes...

"M-monster!" Gold shrieked, scrambling to his feet and almost immediately falling back down. "What are y-you doing in Professor Elm's Lab?!"

Luffy sat next to the boy and grinned. "I came to see you! And I'm a pirate now! Wanna join my crew?"

Gold sat up again, looking around warily. "What do you mean? Crew? Your team of pokemon is called a 'party.'"

"Okay! Wanna have a party, then?" Luffy pulled him to his feet, grinning cheerfully. Elm watched them from over the top of his glasses, hiding behind his desk in case anything exploded.

Gold shook his head, backing away from the rubber boy slowly. Checking his pocket to ascertain that Cinders had returned to his pokeball, he edged closer to the door in an attempt to escape.

"Oi, what are you doing?" A red-haired boy stood in front of the door, blocking Gold from his chance at fleeing. "Luffy's been looking for you everywhere, and the best you can do is leave him again?"

Gold stared up at the boy desperately, his eyes pleading to be allowed outside. With his running shoes on, he might have a small chance at escaping the monster...

"Come on now," the stranger barked. "Don't you know that pokemon are nakama, and you can't betray them?"

"P-pokemon? But this boy is..." Gold trailed off, pointing at the rubber monster who was now playing with two starter pokemon as if he couldn't imagine a better pastime.

The redhead nodded. "He's an independent legendary rubber-type pokemon! And you can't seem to understand that."

Gold stared at him for a moment. There was only one hole in this odd excuse... "Why would you put a _legendary _in a _hat_?!"

"Hey! Don't you dare say that again!" Luffy growled, a protective hand on his straw hat. "I don't care if you _do _become my nakama; this hat is the most important thing I own!"

The redhead rolled his eyes. "And it's just about the _only _thing you own..."

Gold giggled. So it had all been a big misunderstanding? Luffy was a pokemon, aspiring to become the Champion? How ridiculous! But... He was a legendary, so he could do whatever he wanted..

"Oh, I'm Silver." The redhead held out a hand, which Gold accepted gladly.

"Gold. Are you Luffy's trainer, then?"

Silver shrugged. "To be perfectly honest, I'd say he's _my _trainer. I was in a blind rage, but now I understand... pokemon are nakama. And Luffy is my nakama, too."

"I see. So, you two are traveling together?" Gold looked over at Luffy, who was playing with Cinders. "Hey! How'd _you _get out?!"

Luffy laughed, grabbing Gold's pokemon and trotting up to the boy. "He wanted out, so I let him out!"

"But... he's _my _pokemon!" Gold took Cinders into his arms and stroked the warm head gently.

Luffy picked up his Chikorita and headed for the door. "You should play with your nakama more often. Let's have a real party tomorrow!"

Silver stepped away from the door and the six nakama left the Lab, leaving Elm trembling and checking for explosives.

…

Luffy yawned, waving a hand in front of his mouth. Hyperbeam copied him, and in moments had fallen asleep.

"Yup. He's a pokemon, all right." Gold hugged Cinders close, wishing he'd never left the helpless rubber creature to Professor Elm.

Silver shrugged. "What did I tell you? I wouldn't expect a rubber-type pokemon to know Yawn, though."

"I think he's just yawning..."

Luffy turned around, cradling his nakama in his comfy rubber arms. "Why are you all staring at me like that?"

Silver shook his head. "No reason. Come on, let's get to Violet City."

"Where's that?" Luffy asked, adjusting Hyperbeam so he could scan the land with a free hand.

"Check your PokeGear," Gold muttered, patting Cinders to keep him awake.

Silver pulled out his own, while Toto skipped along next to him. "Luffy doesn't have one, so I'll tell you what mine says... we're actually almost there!"

"Idiot. We are not! The actual paths are longer than the centimeters used on that map!" Gold glared at the redhead.

Silver blushed, the color of his skin matching his hair. "I knew that! So then... We aren't even close to Mr Pokemon's house yet."

"Well, we only just passed Cherrygrove City," Gold reasoned. "So, did you get all that, Luffy? …Luffy?"

Silver face-palmed. "Oh, don't tell me..."

"Hey, guys! Look, I'm fighting a purple rat thing nakama!" Luffy waved to them from his battle with Joey, a young boy notorious everywhere for acquiring your phone number and calling you to brag about his stupid rattata.

Gold rushed over to him. "What are you doing, Luffy?! Hyperbeam is still asleep, and still many levels away from evolution! He can't fight this..." Gold stared as the Chikorita snorted awake and used Razor Leaf for a one-hit KO.

"I've been training him," Luffy explained nonchalantly. "And Professor Old Guy gave me an Everstone. Hyperbeam doesn't want to evolve, because he'd look like Tropius and you don't like Tropius."

Gold and Silver looked at each other, each boy equally bewildered. How had Luffy leveled up Hyperbeam so much as to inflict that much damage with Razor Leaf, and still have control over him without any gym badges?

"Wow! You beat me!" Joey's eyes were wide with excitement. "Oh, you've got to give me your phone number so I can battle you again and grow stronger!"

Luffy puffed out his chest. "Of course! But I don't have a PokeGear, so Gold and Silver will give you theirs."

"Luffy," Silver moaned. "Do you even know... Nah, I guess you don't. Oh, well..."

Joey wrote down the phone numbers on his purple stationary, while his Rattata still lay collapsed on the ground. "Thanks, guys! You're going to help my rattata become a top rattata! I just know it!"

"Yeah, let's get going," Gold muttered, walking away and feeling violated for some strange reason.

Silver felt the same way. Two feet away from the youngster, his PokeGear rang like mad. The redhead whipped around and glared at Joey. "Yeah! This is Joey! My rattata is in the top per-"

Silver hung up on him and ran after his nakama. "Wait for me!"

…

After letting Toto and Cinders win a few battles, Luffy decided it was time for Hyperbeam to wake up and pull his own weight again. "Go! Fight the bug guy, Wade!"

Hyperbeam snored, rolling around on the ground to find a better sleeping position. "Hypo..."

"Wake up!" Luffy roared, stomping his foot next to the sleeping Chikorita. "Get the Butterfree!"

The foe's pokemon used Tackle. Hyperbeam woke up. Hyperbeam used Magical Leaf. The foe's Butterfree fainted. Hyperbeam gained 3000 exp points. Hyperbeam grew to level 22.

Silver and Gold stared at Luffy. "How is he gaining so much experience?!"

"I don't know. It's like he always wants to get stronger and stronger... He sure does get tired, though!" Luffy rubbed Hyperbeam gently as the Chikorita fell asleep in his arms once more.

Gold shrugged, leading his friends through the last patch of grass before Violet City. "We're almost there! The first gym leader, Falkner! He's waiting for us!"

"Cool! How does he know we're coming?! Is it like Professor Old Guy's radar?" Luffy bounced on his heels in excitement. "I can't wait!"

Silver gave Luffy a sideways glance. "You're going to have a hard time against that guy, you know?"

"How so?" Gold asked before Luffy could make himself look stupid. "Oh, right right! Hyperbeam is a grass-type, and they're weak to flying-type!"

Luffy frowned. "Why didn't Professor Old Guy tell me that?"

Gold and Silver knew, but were too nice to say anything. They led Luffy into the City, where his most dangerous foe yet awaited! …which isn't saying much.

* * *

Ah, so who sees where I'm going with this? As for Luffy's next pkmn, I'm thinking a Stantler because they can frisk their foes. And no, Luffy's not going to name them their One Piece names. That would be too weird/lucky, even for Luffy. ^-^ see ya tomorrow!


	7. Chapter 7

Guest, I cannot thank you enough for your kind reviews! You too, Ddragon21! You two are the driving force behind my chapters every day, but with school starting Monday I may not be able to publish daily anymore... I gave up on typing ahead of time; it felt too mean somehow. Hiding things a week ahead of time… nope, can't do it. I hope you understand! ^~^

* * *

Luffy bounded down the path, while Gold and Silver socialized behind him. Hyperbeam had fallen asleep again, but Toto and Cinders were as lively as ever. The six nakama were headed for the Pokemon School, where they hoped to teach Luffy some pointers.

"Turn here," Gold called, looking up from the map on his PokeGear. He had finally decided to install the card, after finding out Luffy was a pokemon. "The school is on your right."

Luffy looked utterly bemused, so Silver ushered him in. "These nice people will tell you all about stat problems and training..."

"Are you kidding? All that's in here is stat problems!" Gold cried, pointing at the blackboard of clearly stat-problem-central information.

Luffy glared at both of them. "How did you think this would help, since I can't read a word of your language anyway?" The two boys looked at each other, realizing the complete uselessness of their doomed-from-the-start plan.

"Let's go, then." Gold led them back outside. "That place had no useful information, anyway..." Cinders trotted after him, flaring up every few moments or so to keep from growing bored.

Luffy stayed for a while, staring at the strange writing with Hyperbeam in his arms. "This makes no sense." After imparting his words of wisdom to the nearest rookie trainer, he dashed after his friends.

…

"Let's just go to the gym," Silver offered, trying to change their course. Gold shook his head, pulling the redhead by his collar to the Bellsprout Tower. "Please! They'll kill Toto in there!"

Gold shrugged, knowing he had nothing to worry about because Cinders was a fire-type. "She'll just have to get stronger then, won't she?"

"Yeah! Like Hyperbeam!" Luffy cheered, with nothing to worry about because he didn't know much about using grass-type moves against grass-type pokemon.

Gold opened the door, pushing Silver and Toto inside first. "All those Bellsprouts are weaklings, I can promise you that! You've got nothing to be concerned about. Toto will know what to do."

"Tackle Tackle Tackle!" Toto growled, waving her fists like she'd seen Luffy do.

"See? What did I tell you?"

…

Luffy ran rampant throughout the tower, waking up Hyperbeam every five seconds to take out a bellsprout or rattata; or as he liked to call them; little plant things and purple rat things. The Tackle Technique was enough for Hyperbeam, as he was soon a level 27. Toto was faring much the same, but still at a level 15.

"Yeah, Cinders! Take 'em out! Use Ember this time!" And... Gold was being a show off, using unnecessary fire-type moves to display his type advantage. Also, because Luffy liked watching the little plant things burn.

Silver pulled him away from the disturbing spectacle. "I thought pokemon were nakama, not _ candles_."

"They are! But this is for training, and Gold said it's all right. If they attack us, we can attack them!" Luffy raised his fists in triumph as his pokeman dealt another one-hit KO, and Hyperbeam copied his stance.

Soon all the pokemon were waving their fists at the bellsprouts, scaring the plant things away and moving on to the crazy trainers. Gold and Silver looked on in stunned silence.

"Sort of like Yawn, huh? It's contagious," Gold whispered.

Silver nodded, unsure if a Quilava was even anatomically capable of standing on its hind legs. "Yeah. But it's warning the other pokemon, so they won't be beaten up needlessly. A pretty cool move, I'd say."

"They've got his face, too!" Gold exclaimed, pointing at the four toothy snarls. Eight eyes burned with danger, but only one scar stood prominent; on the legendary's face.

Silver moaned, putting his head in his hands. "They're already acting like pirates..."

"What do you mean? Pirates?!" Gold tugged Silver along as their pokemon ascended the ladder, already having beaten the poor sage and his little plant things.

"Luffy admitted to stealing my pokemon, and he managed to infuriate a certain high-ranking police officer. Now he's recognized as a land pirate, and we are, too!"

Gold shrugged. "Can't say I'm surprised." On the inside, however, he was seething with rage at the rubber pokemon in front of him. '_ There go my chances at being a legal Champion..._'

Cinders used Tackle for a one-hit KO and stamped his feet in victory. "Victory dances?" Gold paled. "Is Luffy teaching them all of this?"

"Nah, it looks like they're just having fun!" It was Silver's turn to pull Gold after their nakama, who were descending a second ladder to the first floor again.

When the boys got down, their pokemon were already skipping to the next ladder on the far side of the room. Silver once again marveled at the balance of Cinders, who was certainly not supposed to be able to stand on his hind legs. Grabbing Gold, the redhead scrambled after the nakama, not wanting their free tickets to the top to get away without them.

…

"This is great!" Luffy cried when they'd reached the top floor. "A trainer for each of you! Get going!"

Gold and Silver stared as each pokemon fought a different trainer, with no orders from the boys. "How are they doing that?" Gold muttered.

Silver pushed him away. "Shut up and watch!"

Cinders flowed through the battle as if it was a dance. A beautiful dance, as he used Flame Wheel and Ember to shoot out at his opponents, wrapping them up and burning them slowly. The flames on his head burned a bright blue, looking almost like hair as he displayed his extreme agility and balance in his art.

Hyperbeam jumped around, cutting apart his enemies with a Slash from his sharp leaf -"When did he learn Slash?"- and using Razor Leaf as a finishing move. His attacks were brute force, relying also on his skill with judging weak points. Even Gold couldn't fathom how the Chikorita was using Slash -"Chikoritas don't even learn that move!"

Toto darted around, displaying a sudden increase in speed. With each Tackle she landed, she released a loud squawk of triumph, and sometimes even a quack. She darted at her enemy plant things, not even giving them time to move before she knocked them out with Tackle.

And Luffy just sat back and watched, not remembering he was a pokemon and was therefore supposed to participate in a battle. Gold glowered at him, marching over as soon as the other nakama had won their own. "You get to fight the old guy's pokemon."

"Huh? What?" Luffy snorted awake as Hyperbeam crawled into his arms for another nap, now a level 32. "Oh, I get to fight? Great! Thanks!"

Watching him prance up to the senior trainer made Gold reconsider whether making him battle was a punishment -or an honor. After all, he _was _a legendary. Who knew how powerful he was?

"Gum-Gum Pistol! Gum-Gum Bazooka! Gum-Gum Pistol! Ok, l win!"

Clearly, it was a joke. No pokemon stood a chance against those foreign rubber-type moves. Gold sighed. "Well, if Hyperbeam can't beat Falkner, Luffy can always switch him out with himself…"

…

Luffy stood in front of Falkner, his fists clenched. "I've tracked you down to here, bad guy! Now it's time to pay!"

The gym leader was extremely confused. "I'm not a bad guy! I'm just a poor kid with weak pokemon I inherited from my father that I can't even level up because everyone that comes to my gym beats them senseless!"

"Oh. Then, it's my turn!" Luffy rolled up his sleeves, which wasn't quite necessary because he'd already rolled them up for the last two trainers in the gym.

Gold pulled him back. "No need to beat him senseless just yet, Luffy! Why don't you let Silver and me go first?"

"...All right," the rubber boy muttered, making a pouty face as he looked away. "But just this once."

Cinders was sent out, and he proceeded to burn the Pidgey out of the sky. When Falkner sent out a Pidgeotto, Cinders acted on his own and used Flame Wheel to bring it down. One Tackle after the bird used Gust was enough to knock it out, and Falkner moaned.

"For pity's sake! My dad's... Wait, can we save this for later? After all of you have beaten me?" Falkner looked worn out already, so Gold and Silver nodded sympathetically.

"My turn." Silver sent out Toto, while Luffy watched boredly. The battle was over in two moves, both executed by the Croconaw. Luffy clapped politely, then bounded up to the blue-haired boy.

"Can I go now?" He asked eagerly, watching as Falkner revived his fallen birds and patted them tenderly.

He frowned at the boy. "And who might you be? I sense great power and potential in you..."

"He's a pokemon," Gold explained, picking up Cinders to watch Luffy's battle. "You're not going to like this."

Falkner shuddered, turning to the rubber legendary in the straw hat to send out his Pidgey. When Hyperbeam hopped forwards, the boy laughed in relief. "Are you kidding?! I was expecting something more, like an electric-type. But this... Just use Tackle, Pidgey!"

"You dare... mock Hyperbeam?!" Luffy's eyes were covered by the rim of his hat, but his companions could sense his anger. "Go! Use Magical Leaf!"

The pidgey was KO'd in one hit, even though the move wasn't particularly effective. "I don't even have to get involved in this battle," Luffy muttered, his eyes aflame. "Hyperbeam will make you sorry you ever said that!"

The Chikorita gnashed his teeth, a fierce snarl on his normally cute little face. "Horo! Hypo... BEAM!"

"What the..." Gold's mouth dropped open. "Is he just using any old move he feels like?"

Luffy shook his head. "Nah, he's learning them!"

Hyperbeam's Hyperbeam was a one-hit KO -by far, the most powerful move the Pidgeotto had ever been hit with. The level 13 bird crumpled to the ground, and Hyperbeam flicked his leaf backwards as though he was sheathing a sword.

Luffy's posture was still stern, but his eyes were sparkling. "That was so COOL, Hypo! You used a BEAM!" The Chikorita bounced up and down, clearly as excited about the move as his childish master. Silver face-palmed. That little Chikorita was too powerful...

"Here... Zephyr Badge... Use Rock Smash out of battle, and... pokemon up to... 20..." Falkner collapsed next to his pokemon, three badges in his outstretched hand. The boy's face was slightly singed, and Gold wondered if Hyperbeam hadn't been aiming for the Pidgeotto at all.

Luffy snatched up a badge and pinned it to Hyperbeam's leaf. "Luffy... That's not what you're supposed to do with them," Silver muttered, head in his hands.

"Then what else are you going to do with them?" Luffy countered, refusing to remove Hyperbeam's new accessory. The nakama stuck out its chest proudly, waving his leaf from side to side.

Gold shrugged, taking his own badge and pinning it on Cinders' ear. "He's got a point. There really is no purpose to them. We don't have a case to put badges in, so our pokemon can have all the fun they want."

Silver gaped at him. He was siding with a pirating pokemon?! This was just getting too crazy... "Come on, To... ACK!" His Croconaw had applied the last badge to one of her many spikes, and was admiring it happily. Silver groaned. "Fine."

The six nakama left the gym laughing and joking, unaware of the bright pair of eyes watching them from a rift in time...

* * *

So, who knows what One Piece characters are being represented by the three pokemans? Two aren't the same gender; I realize that. Any suggestions for the next ones?


	8. Chapter 8

Guest, was I really that bad at hinting at Vivi and Carue? I sort of thought the Croconaw looked like a duck... And Cinders' blue hair would look like Vivi's. Ah, forget I ever mentioned it. But I'm glad Zoro was painfully obvious! ^-^

Long chapter, you say? I'll try…

* * *

"Luffy, I don't think we can cross here." Gold tried again unsuccessfully to pull his friend back to Violet City. The odd tree was way out of their league, as none of the pokemon knew Cut yet.

The rubber boy grinned, pointing at the people behind him. "They said water would make it happy, right? So if Toto gives it water, it'll go away for us!" Silver wanted to slap the rubber pokemon.

"That's not the way it works. The tree is clearly a Sudowoodo; our PokeDex's say so! Pouring water on it will only make it mad, and it may attempt to fight us!"

Luffy frowned, thinking deeply about the matter. "We... shouldn't do that, then." Silver groaned, but his nakama wasn't finished. "...Why don't we just ask it to leave? There have to be better homes in the forest than in the middle of this path that everybody uses!"

"Unless it's just purposefully trying to be annoying," Gold muttered. The party slowly turned to stare at the camouflaged pokemon. An eye opened in the middle of the fake trunk, glinting maliciously.

Luffy was just about to bust into it when Silver's PokeGear rang. "Howdy, guys! It's Joey! Remember my super-cool Rattata? My-"

"_Die, worthless pokeman!"_

"…What was that?"

Silver sighed. "Technical difficulties. Sorry, kid. Please don't call us again." *click*

"Hypo!" Hyperbeam got his two cents in with a Cut attack, which confused Gold and Silver to no end.

"Uh, doesn't he knew more than four moves by now?"

Luffy shrugged, blasting the offending tree away with Gum-Gum Bazooka. "Who said he could only learn four moves at a time?"

Silver shook his head. "Ignore it, Gold. Legendary pokemon clearly have different training methods. Don't question it, or he'll only confuse you more."

"Come on, guys! Let's keep going!" Picking up his sleepy nakama, Luffy strolled down the path, heading for the National Park. The three boys that tried to fight him were somewhat discouraged by the two pokemon stomping behind him, fists raised. Gold and Silver tried to look as though they didn't know Luffy, but they still received odd stares.

Hyperbeam wasn't helping, waving his leaf back and forth as he slept. Tall grass that Luffy got too close to were clipped away mercilessly. The people in the park inched away from the strange team, trying to avoid a battle… but Luffy challenged them anyway.

…

After acquiring several new phone numbers, the nakama marched down Route 35. The firebreathers stood no chance against Toto, and Cinders took care of the other trainers. Hyperbeam had been poisoned somewhere along the line, and all Luffy was concerned about was reaching a PokeCenter.

"Look! There's one!" Soon after entering Goldenrod City, Gold pointed to a red-roofed building, and Luffy shot off. Two seconds later, a loud yell erupted from the small structure.

"YOU ALWAYS SAY THAT! I know what this place is already! Heal my pokeman already! Or I'll smash this place already!" Loud crashes could be heard from inside, and the two boys backed away cautiously.

"How about we just leave, and act like we never came here?" Silver suggested. Gold was happy to comply. Beating a hasty retreat, the trainers and their pokemon ran back to Route 36.

Luffy joined them some time later, sporting numerous cuts and bruises and a cheerful Hyperbeam. "Those ladies are so annoying!"

"I know, Luffy. But that doesn't mean you can wreck their PokeCenter," Gold moaned. "They'll never let us back now! And I wanted to see the city I was named after so badly..."

Silver glared at Luffy, gesturing at the Sudowoodo that had jumped back into place as they'd returned -along with fifteen Sudowoodo friends. "Not that we can go back _anyway_, because _someone _made the "pokeman" mad!"

Luffy shrunk under their cold glares. "Sorry... But Hyperbeam was dying!"

"For goodness' sake, Luffy! He would have recovered with one hit point left! And doesn't he knew any moves like Absorb?"

The rubber boy shook his head in confusion. "Why would be need to know… a sword? That didn't make sense, so I wouldn't let him teach himself that. Slash is enough for- ACK!"

Gold felt a little better after slapping Luffy in the face. While Silver took his turn, he redirected the pokemon to Route 32. Hyperbeam shook himself awake to get away from his abused trainer, following Gold down the grassy path.

With two red handprints on his face, the pirate stumbled after his nakama. "I get it, I get it! So you want him to learn a sword move... I'll let him, next time. But we already skipped the mega sword move..."

…

With four red handprints and three pawprints on his face, Luffy staggered after his rebellious crew. He'd learned his lesson on keeping his mouth shut...

Trainers that dared to challenge the team were defeated in one-hit knockouts by the buff pokemon, Cinders' level 29 being their lowest. Gold had also received an Everstone from Professor Elm. He preferred Cinders as a Cinders that could still perch on his shoulder, so the Quilava was staying a Quilava indefinitely.

Silver groaned suddenly, and Gold was concerned. "What is it?" The boy only pointed at the PokeCenter around the corner, and Gold started laughing hysterically.

"C-come on, Luffy! I think I see Cebi in the trees over there..." He twisted Luffy's head the other way as the party passed by the building and headed for Union Cave.

The rubber head tugged against his hands frantically. "Where?! Where?! CEBI!" Gold felt a slight twinge of remorse for tricking the pokemon with a painful reminder of his best friend, but he couldn't risk the destruction of another innocent PokeCenter. Luffy just didn't understand that the nurses were all different, and had never seen him before in their lives...

"Who's Cebi?" Silver asked as he led the way into the cave. Luffy's eyes lit up, and he had the boy by the shirt before he could even blink.

"Cebi is my nakama. Cebi ran away. I miss Cebi. Find Cebi."

Gold pulled the pokemon away from the trembling redhead. "Stop, you're scaring him!"

"Find Cebi. Find Cebi." Luffy hugged Hyperbeam tightly, making the Chikorita's eyes bug out. "Cebi's green. Green like Hypo. Cebi has wings. Wings like Butterfree. Cebi has eyeballs, eyeballs like Cebi!"

Gold face-palmed. "Good lord, what have I started?!"

…

"Eyes. Wings. Mouth. Green. Cebi is my friend, and she ain't mean!" Luffy sang, skipping along. It turned out he'd just been trying to think up lyrics for a come-home song for the Celebi, who may or may not have even been there. "Cebi likes tails! Slow-slow tails! Slowpoke, Slowpoke, eat up all the whales!"

"This isn't making any sense," Silver mumbled. "And they're called Wailmers."

Gold glared at his friend. "We shouldn't have bought him that expensive tail."

"Yummy yummy tails, made from 'pokes and whales! Come home Cebi, and we'll read up all the mail!"

Silver moaned, covering his ears with Cinders' long body. "Make him stop!"

"Actually, I think I'm enjoying this," Gold snickered, pulling his pokemon away from the suffering boy. "Keep going, Luffy. Throw in something that rhymes with 'said'."

The rubber boy nodded, casting his echoing voice through the cavern once more. "Hurry up, Cebi! I hope you're not dead!"

"Or else we'll have to feed you to this ugly redhead!"

Silver glowered at the two. "Would you guys just shut up?!"

"Hypo, hypo, hypo! Beam, beam, beam"

"If we don't shut up, the redhead will scream!" Luffy laughed, patting his Chikorita. "That was a good one, boy!"

Gold tapped him nervously, his lower lip suddenly bleeding. "Uh, Luffy?"

"_I'll kill you!_" Silver roared, jumping at Luffy next. The rubber boy yelped in surprise, barely having time to use Gum-Gum Balloon before the hit landed.

Gold watched them, bemused. "Luffy, how thumb you can use yer moveth outhide of battle?"

"He's battling me, isn't he?!"

Silver nodded, rubbing his sore wrist. The impact of bouncing off Luffy's rubber body had done a number on it. "I suppose that makes sense... I just didn't expect it, is all."

"Thebi, come thoon! The redhead'th really mad!"

"Toto, Toto! Croc-croc!"

"Cinders, Cinder-ad!"

…

The bright pair of eyes watched the ongoings in amusement. But did the strange boy really want her back? He seemed more like he was having fun with the strange song... Having fun was better than having a nakama, right...?

…

Gold's mouth had healed by the time they left the cave, but Cebi still hadn't shown up. Hyperbeam trudged sadly through the wet grass, indifferent to the rain. Toto was dancing, and Cinders was te trembling in his pokeball.

The Quilava was happy to let Hyperbeam and Toto deal with the trainers, but as soon as he caught the scent of smoke from Azalea Town, he was out of his capsule in seconds. "Cin!"

"It smells bad," Luffy muttered, all traces of his boundless energy in Union Cave gone. "What are they burning, trees?!"

Hyperbeam was faring just as bad, if not worse. Gold attributed Luffy's problem to pokemon's eternal hatred of the destruction of nature, and Hyperbeam's to being a grass-type in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Are you kidding?! It's great here!" Silver cried, tossing Toto into the air. "Death to grass-type! Waters can sleep safe tonight!"

Luffy glowered at him. "You're a bad singer."

"He knows. He just wants to annoy you," Gold sighed, sweating from the heat. "I just can't stand this weather. First it was raining, and now it's all humid? They need to do something about this..."

"Hey! Stay away from the well! It's dangerous down there!" A man in a black suit was pushing Luffy away from a gentle slope that led down to the famous Slowpoke Well.

Luffy slipped past him, running down the slope. "Yummy, yummy Slowpoke tails! Eat 'em, Cebi! They're from whales!"

"Oh, you're after those things, huh?" A second oddly-dressed man popped out of the well. "_People actually eat them_?! Er, what I meant was, come on in! We'll let you have all you want if you join out cause!"

Luffy nodded eagerly while Gold and Silver face-palmed behind him. "What's your cause? Are you pirates, too?!"

"Nothing of the sort," the man scoffed. Seeing how Luffy was immediately turned off, he backtracked hastily. "I mean, of course we are! We're... the Team Rocket pirates!"

Luffy's eyes sparkled in excitement. "Can I be the captain?"

"Er, maybe, if you work hard for two years..." The man was kicked ten feet away by a rubber leg.

"NO! I want to be captain NOW!" Luffy jumped down the well, leaving his friends looking at each other in bemusement and his Hyperbeam sleeping on the ground.

* * *

Ok! I promise, if not a chapter tomorrow, then on Tuesday! And don't ask how they bought Luffy a Slowpoke tail... uh, Silver's father is really rich, and... Silver stole a lot of his money when he ran away!


	9. Chapter 9

Why, thank you, RyuNoRainbow! You said it was only 'pretty' good. How could I make it better? My first day back was yesterday, which is why I was unable to type up a chapter. I'll update every other day, or every three days, depending on assignments and such. And I hope this turns out to be a story everyone can dedicate themselves to! ^-^

Guest, did I discourage you from leaving further reviews? I'm so sorry! Or is it just school for you, too? I really enjoyed reading your reviews, and they were greatly appreciated. Motivation... is hard to come by these days. :(

* * *

Luffy knocked aside the first Team Rocket grunt that tried to attack him, but the second one was a girl. Even pirates can't hit girls until they're eighteen… so Luffy kicked her, instead. The next henchmen met the same fate, as the rubber boy found his Gum-Gum Battle Axe to be much more effective against them.

"Stop right there! Hold it! You can't see the leader right now. He's busy... Please come back at a later- Erk!" Luffy kicked the short man away, his frustration building.

"Where's the end to this stupid cave?!"

A voice rose up from his right. "It's not a cave; it's a well! And I'm busy right now. Could you please keep it down?"

Luffy turned towards the voice, his spirits rising. "Yeah! Can I be your captain?"

"Huh... absolutely not! We're criminals, not sailors! Captains are for the sea. I'm an executive, on land. What do you want?!"

Luffy glared at the wall. Whoever was behind it was the leader of the Team Rocket pirates... and he was very rude! "But that guy outside said you were pirates..."

"That jerk! Betraying our cause when he should be in here, cutting off Slowpoke tails..." Footsteps echoed throughout the cave, and a man came to stand in front of Luffy. "I'm sorry, young sir. Can I help you?"

Luffy nodded furiously. "Yeah! I wanna be your captain!"

"I'm sorry, little boy. We're not pirates. We have some tasty Slowpoke tails of you want, though!" The executive held out a hand. "But allow me to introduce myself. I'm..." He paused, scanning the room for the first time since coming from around the corner. "What happened to my men?"

Luffy shook his hand, grinning broadly. "There was a woman, too! But they all wanted to fight me, so I... You know."

"I'm afraid I don't know. Are your pokemon that strong, to defeat my grunts themselves?!"

"Don't call your teammates 'grunts'! That's not nice," Luffy chided, slipping a Slowpoke tail out of the man's pocket and chewing noisily.

The executive glowered at him. "My name is Proton, young man. You'd do well to remember that. And I don't know how your pokemon beat my underlings, but you won't get away with it! Go! Zubat!"

Luffy stepped back in surprise. "What a weird bird! Huh. All right, then. Gum-Gum..."

Seeing the boy had no pokemon, Proton acted quickly. "Zubat! Use Supersonic!"

Luffy stopped stretching his arms suddenly, and his expression turned slack. As the Zubat's signals messed with his rubbery brain, he began hitting himself for no reason.

"Sorry, little boy," Proton chuckled. "You're just too weak. Take that tail as my gift, and go play with freaky kids your own age!" Luffy muttered incoherent nonsense as the Zubat tackled him towards the well's central floor.

Gold and Silver darted through the entrance, panting with exhaustion. "Luffy! What are you..." Silver stared as his sworn nakama staggered towards him like a drunkard.

"He looks really confused," Gold whispered as a Zubat fluttered about their friend's head. "Let's see... my PokeDex says that when a pokemon has a Confused status, they can snap out of it on their own, or be switched out to recover from it."

The boys watched in stunned silence as Luffy performed a handstand, clapping his feet together up in the air. "Dubba dubba dubba..."

"Let's switch him out," Silver whispered back.

Proton laughed at them. "Oh, are these your little friends, Luffy? I can't say I'm impressed..."

"Go! Hyperbeam!" Gold cried as the Chikorita bounded into the cavern. Waving his leaf angrily, Hypo sliced through the Zubat for a one-hit KO.

"Wow… Marvelous! Imagine if that pokemon evolved!" Proton exclaimed. "The power of its evolution... Why is that Chikorita not a Bayleef by now?!"

Luffy picked up his pokemon, recovering from his confusion quickly. "Hyperbeam doesn't want to evolve! He wants to stay small so he can still sleep in my arms!"

"What a waste. If that pokemon was on our side, sleep would be the last thing on his mind..." Proton sighed to himself, summoning his Koffing and waving a gloved hand through the poisonous gases.

Luffy leapt back, setting the sleeping Hyperbeam back on the ground. "Hey! Someone's got gas!"

"Luffy, that's not..." Gold trailed off, realizing the pokemon wouldn't listen to him, no matter what he said. "Just let Hyperbeam deal with it."

"He's not getting anywhere close to that!" Luffy cried, jumping forwards to protect his pokeman from the filth. A weak Gum-Gum Pistol was enough to knock out the Koffing. Wiping his hand off in disgust, Luffy returned to his friends. "That's what you get for doing something like that in a small, secluded area, Mr Gassy!"

Silver scrutinized the pokemon critically. After a while, he felt he understood where Luffy was coming from, a little. Solidified gas... Though Silver had always hated the pokemon for its ugly face, Luffy had managed to twist his mind grotesquely. How the pokemon even knew about those human things, though, was beyond him...

…

"Let's go, guys!" Luffy clapped excitedly, eight pokemon and two boys in tow. Proton had run off after gathering up his pokemon, and the rubber boy was now taking the Slowpoke back to Azalea Town.

Gold hadn't been the biggest fan of Luffy's methods of getting the five Slowpoke back out of the well. Gum-Gum Balloon hadn't worked at all, and the Gum-Gum Bazooka method had left then traumatized for life! But that was Luffy for you...

"Why can't we keep one? They're so cute!" Luffy squealed, hugging a pink pokemon tight.

Silver wrestled it away from him, teeth gritted. "They belong to the town, Luffy! And you only want one so you can eat its tail each time it grows back!"

"It's not like they'll feel anything..." Luffy pouted, watching the Slowpoke run back to their places in the village.

The citizens of Azalea Town met them with cheers and smiles, grateful for the return of their pokemon. A policeman stood in the back of the crowd. His eyes widened when he saw the team.

"Hey! That's the new pirate! Someone arrest him," he cried. When none of the villagers made a move to obey, he ran forwards himself. "I'll get you, pokemon thief!"

Luffy knocked him aside half-heartedly, still upset about the lack of Slowpoke in his crew. "Hey, people of Azalea Town. Can we have a Slowpoke?"

"No way," an old man piped up cheerfully. "But if you can catch a wild one, sure!"

Luffy thanked him profusely, while Gold and Silver cursed the day that old Pokeball Creator was born.

…

"I caught one!" Luffy cried, prancing back to his nakama with a Slowpoke in his arms. "Everybody, meet Pokey!" Silver stared at it. Something was off...

Gold realized it first. "What's wrong with its nose?!"

Luffy shrugged. "I don't know. I caught him in the back, with his girl Pokey friend."

"You stole him from his _girlfriend_?!" Silver screamed, shaking Luffy by the shoulders.

The rubber boy pushed him away. "No, I said girl _ Pokey _friend! And I don't know what's wrong with his nose. It was just like this..."

Gold and Silver stared at the strange Slowpoke. "It's just so... long," Gold understated. Luffy nodded in agreement.

"And he likes me! Don't you, boy?" He patted Pokey's head, but the Slowpoke shook it quickly.

Silver snorted. "Nah, he's shaking his head! You must have been horrible to him!"

"He's just teasing," Luffy whined, scratching behind his friend's ears. "Do you hate me, huh?"

Pokey nodded, a cheeky grin on his fat little face. Gold shrugged. "Well, here's how you can tell. Hey, Pokey!"

The Slowpoke looked up at him, waving its tail happily. "Is your nose longer than all your friends'?"

Pokey shook his head, grabbing his snout self-consciously. Silver stared at it. It was longer than an entire Diglett! Two normal nostrils sat at the very beginning, near his mouth, but there was an unnecessary added length on the end.

"I knew it!" Luffy cried, running up to his new nakama. Pokey squealed in fright, remembering the last time the boy had run at him like that. He shot off for Azalea Town at a speed no Slowpoke had ever achieved before, and most likely, no Ponyta, either.

Gold and Silver watched them go. "He's an odd one," Silver muttered under his breath.

Gold gave him an odd look. "The pokemon, or the bigger pokemon?"

Silver smiled wryly at him, for they already knew the answer. "...Both."

* * *

Heh, that's it for this week. I'm all burned out, so you can expect a chapter on Friday or Saturday. Sorry, new followers and favorite-ers! ^~^


	10. Chapter 10

Thanks for all the reviews; you guys have pressured me to type up another chapter! ^-^

RyuNoRainbow, the people in the world of pokemon are ignorant. They didn't even know the Sudowoodo wasn't a tree at first, remember? Gold and Silver believe he's a pokemon because that's what they want to believe. And... That's what my plotline calls for. ^-^

* * *

Luffy skipped along, signing another nonsensical song with his pokemon. So far, Gold and Silver had been able to tune him out, but little snippets of gibberish made their way into the conversation occasionally.

"How are we going to defeat Bugsy? Toto is a water-type!" Silver kicked a broken pokeball, upset about the bug-type gym leader they had yet to face.

Gold grinned. "You should have gotten a Slugma from that guy back in Violet City. Fire-types would show that guy who's boss!"

"Slugma, what's a slug? Can it kill the big, bad bug?!"

Ignoring the pokemon's song, Silver frowned at his friend. "Someone was giving out pokemon?"

"'Someone' is Bill... But Primo's big brother lurks in the back of Violet City's PokeCenter. If you tell him the right password, he'll smuggle pokemon eggs to you, and some secret wallpaper, if you're lucky!" Gold shot a glance in Luffy's direction. The rubber boy was out of earshot, so he continued. "We could go back and get you one, if you want."

Silver shook his head, astonished at the boy's lawlessness. "Smuggling?! Isn't that just like pirating?"

"Pirates! Pirates! That's our name! Who wants to join our smuggling game?"

"Hyp-Hypo!"

"Po..."

"Cynda! La-la-lava!"

Gold grabbed his pokemon by the scruff. "Hey, it's not pirating! And we're not going! Who said we were going to go, at all?"

"You did," Luffy pointed out, picking his nose. "So, who else wants to practice being pirates?!"

"Toto-to!"

Silver moaned, rubbing his pokemon's head in defeat. "Not you, too, Toto!"

"You know we'll have to go all the way back to Violet City, right?" Gold asked, trying to talk Luffy out of it. He'd only been joking about Primo! That had been based completely off of speculation and rumors, and a certain black market website...

Silver shrugged with a sudden change of heart. "If it will help me beat Bugsy, I'll do anything. And Luffy's my nakama, so he'll support me all the way!"

"Yeah! Let's get a pokemon, and smuggle it good! Be a pirate, just like you should!"

"Luffy, those are actually starting to make more sense," Gold warned.

The rubber pokemon gasped, clapping a hand over his mouth. "I'd better stop, then..."

…

"My feet hurt. There's no dirt. Pokemon love to play!"

"If you keep on singing... you won't live past today," Gold growled. Violet City was just around the corner, but it had been a taxing journey. With Luffy singing nonstop and Silver jabbering about the need for power, Gold was at his wits end.

Silver patted him on the shoulder. "Don't be that way, buddy. If you really want him to stop, challenge him to a pokemon battle. Cinders will have the advantage!"

"But Hyperbeam is almost a level 50 by now, and he's still got Pokey. That long-nosed thing is a water-type!" Gold shook his head in frustration. "And if worst came to worst, Luffy would knock out Cinders, himself! I really need more pokemon..."

Luffy trotted up next to him, already on the eighty-sixth verse. "And when you need a nakama, your friends will help you out! So you can count on Luffy, and he will..."

"Go away," Gold muttered, in no mood to finish the rhyming verse now.

Silver frowned. "That didn't rhyme. And it was terribly insensitive, considering Luffy's topic..."

"Do I look like I care?!" Gold cried. "He's being awfully annoying, and I can't think about the upcoming gym leaders at all! And you guys are all following him like it's the most natural thing in the world! How can you follow a criminal pokemon that doesn't even guarantee safety from the government, which, by the way, is _ after us all!?_"

Silver turned around, crossing his arms. "You're following him, aren't you?"

"Not anymore, I'm not! If he wasn't so irritating, I'd... huh?" Gold trailed off, staring at Luffy.

The boy sat on the ground, the four other pokemon huddled close. Toto and Cinders glared at Gold as they nuzzled Luffy's hidden face. Hypo was twittering sadly, sitting on the boy's lap as a soft mumble carried on the wind.

Silver crept forward. "What are you saying, Luffy? Aren't we going to get my Slugma? Who cares about Gold! We can go, on our-"

"Not again."

The boys stepped back in surprise. The short sentence was enough to badly confuse Silver, and put Gold to shame.

"Not again," Luffy repeated, standing up with a determined look in his eyes. The pokemon huddled in his arms, staring at the other boys coldly. "Gold isn't going to leave! We're sticking together, because nakama are friends forever!"

"Luffy..." Silver was at a loss.

Gold wasn't. "Who said I was your nakama?! You did! I never agreed, so how can you say that? Give Cinders back; he's mine!"

Luffy shook his head, hugging the pokemon tighter. "They're my nakama. All of them. And I thought you were, too! Gold, so what if I'm a legendary pokemon? So what if I might be just a Blue Sea person with devil fruit powers? So what if I'm annoying?! That doesn't matter to you, really... does it?"

Gold stared at him for a while. How had Luffy seen right through him? He sighed. Time to come clean, then... "I'm homesick... I guess."

"Why? Your parents probably don't even care that you're-" Silver was cut short by Luffy, who approached Gold cautiously and handed him back his pokemon.

"Your mother hasn't called you, has she?" The boy looked as solemn as Gold had ever seen him.

He nodded. "And she's all I've ever had... I thought she would be more concerned about me, and she even offered to watch my money, but..."

"Come here. Follow me," Luffy whispered, leading his nakama into Violet City with the remaining three pokemon in his arms. Gold hugged Cinders tight and followed him.

Silver trailed his friends to the blue PokeMart, quiet as a Rattata. Luffy smiled cheerfully at the man standing next to the counter.

"Hey, I'm back! I brought Gold with me this time."

Silver stared at him. "When did you ever visit a PokeMart?" Judging by the how familiar Luffy was with the delivery man, he must have come more than once...

"Welcome. You are Gold? Your mother sent you quite a few packages, that she bought with her own hard-earned money." The man leaned over the counter to pick up dozens of small boxes.

Gold shook his head in confusion. "But Mom's dead broke! She doesn't have any... oh, no. You've got to be kidding me! All my prize money..." He broke down, sobbing on the floor.

"But look! You got a nice white scarf, and some berries, and a weird rock, and some more berries..." Luffy raised the goods high, displaying the gifts to his distraught friend.

Silver laughed, shaking silently to avoid adding to Gold's already-long list of things to be infuriated about. Luffy grinned, waving the stone in front of the crying boy. "Hey! Get a load of this!"

"I'm not…" Gold looked up, his eyes red and puffy. "I'm just... glad she cared enough to send me these gifts..."

Luffy handed him the goods, and he stood up shakily. "I thought she'd forgotten about me... But she sent me all this stuff! Why didn't she call?"

"Oh, I turned off your phone app because Joey was calling every five seconds," Silver muttered. "And mine, too..."

Luffy bounded up to him, handing Toto back. Silver still wasn't sure how the pokemon had managed to hold all the smaller pokemon and the gifts at the same time... maybe it was just one of those flexible rubber things.

"Really? Maybe your dad called you!" He cried, fiddling with the device. "I bet you've got loads of messages, and your dad is really missing you, and-"

Silver clamped a hand over his mouth, adjusting Toto in his other arm. "Thanks, Luffy, but you don't have to try to cheer me up. I know my father would never... whoa."

Thousands of messages had popped up on the PokeGear's screen, each one by the same person. Tears formed in Silver's eyes as he scrolled through the row of frantic calls from 'Dad'. "Buddy, come home!" "I miss you. I'm so lonely by myself!" "Why did you leave?"

"I thought he didn't care about me," Silver whispered, listening to the messages as they progressively got more sad and upset.

"Your parents always care about you," Luffy laughed, patting his nakama on the back. "Ace told me that family will never abandon you, and we're all nakama! So we'll stick together always, right?"

Silver couldn't tell for sure, but he thought he saw a flicker of doubt pass over Luffy's face before he resumed his signature smile again. A terrible thought crossed his mind, and he gazed at the pokemon with new concern.

"Luffy... pokemon have parents, don't they…?"

The boy frowned, scratching at the scar underneath his eye. "Um, I guess I did, once. I mean, my dad is still alive somewhere... I think."

"Luffy, you don't have a family?!" Gold cried, jumping onto the boy and nearly knocking all the pokemon to the floor.

The delivery man pulled the boy off of Luffy, shaking his head. Silver could already see what was running through the poor man's head...

"Of course I have family!" Luffy laughed, laying a hand on his straw hat as he sat up and rocked on his heels. "I have Ace, and Shanks! You guys, of course... and Cinders and Toto, and Hypo and Pokey! And... Cebi! You're all my special nakama! How would I be Luffy without you guys?"

The three boys smiled at each other, each one barely holding back tears. In two cases, they'd already failed, but one particular rubber boy was the saddest of the three. Remembering his former friends from the East Blue, he sat back and hugged Hyperbeam tighter, without quite explaining why.

…

The Celebi hovered next to the window, her humming becoming more fast-paced. The boy had said she was his nakama! Even though she'd left him so long ago... No, she reminded herself. It had only been a few days! It somehow felt like years, though. In fact, it really had been millennia since she'd visited this time...

Cebi dropped closer to the glass, her small lips twisting into a frown. She really did have to take him back to his own time... She was fully capable of restoring him at the exact moment he'd been taken, so the world would not be doomed after the years he'd been meant to take part in. But he hadn't finished his job in this time... Cebi knew she couldn't return to him just yet. Dialga himself had ordered her to stay away from him... But it was so hard!

Seeing how the boy still cared for her, and all of his nakama... she couldn't help herself! She wanted to be _his_ pokemon, not Dialga's slave of time! The green pokemon hissed, the tune she had been humming long forgotten. Dialga... Why was he so cruel? Would history really change that much, if she was allowed to travel with him?

The boy looked up suddenly, his eyes flashing to the window. Cebi squeaked, ducking beneath the windowsill. He'd already seen her, though. And she knew she'd never forget that smile...


	11. Chapter 11

RyuNoRainbow: Chapter 667

And a BIG thanks to all my followers and favorite-ers; and thank you for putting up with my lateness!

* * *

Luffy spun around, glaring at the Ace Trainer who wasn't Ace. Luffy had already clarified that he'd wanted to be seen as the King of the Pokeman, but the man hadn't done anything about it. And Gold and Silver were jabbering utter nonsense to the fat guy in the corner of the PokeCenter. "Download Bulbasaur," and, "Bicycle Happiness," were producing nothing except an irritated Luffy.

The boy finally trotted over to his friends and the fat guy. "Hey, mister!"

"Oh, young man! Are you here to tell me how awesome and wonderful I am?" The man grinned, swaying from side to side and displaying an overly-cheerful grin. Luffy began bouncing on his heels, somewhat intimidated by the sketchy man who seemed to be as energetic as himself.

Gold glared at him. "We're not here to explode your ego. We're just here for the-"

"Pokeman Pokeman Pokeman Pokeman," Luffy shot off his list with the one pokemon-related word he knew. The man's eyes widened.

"You're no ordinary fan! I see... You want a pokemon!" Primo turned around, rummaging through his bag of pokeballs. "Here! Take good care of this Ralts egg!"

Silver stared at it, wide-eyed. "But you don't even give out Ralts eggs!"

"For special fans," Primo tutted as he wagged a finger, "I give out what is necessary."

Unsatisfied, Gold crossed his arms. "Why didn't any of _my_ passwords work?"

"You have to _mean _what you say, with all your heart! Only then can I understand the true meaning behind your kind words about my amazingness." Primo shrugged, pointing at Luffy. "You'd do well to take after your little friend there. He's got true potential as my biggest fan!"

Gold snorted, deciding to humor the old man. "Bicycle _Happy_."

"Really? That's so great! Tell me more about my awesomeness..." Primo batted his eyelashes at the boys, and the pokemon hid behind their trainers in fear.

Luffy gripped his egg tighter. "Pokeman Poffin!"

"Ah! You are no plain, simple, mundane little fan, either!" Primo cried, pulling out another egg and handing it to Gold. "Take this Mareep egg, and grow it big and strong!"

The boy accepted the gift, looking down at it dubiously and still somewhat shocked that his inflection had worked. "Aren't they just electric sheep, though?"

"I've decided," Silver announced before Primo could come up with a witty excuse for the obvious ripoff in giving out a pokemon that could be caught in the wild. "Slugma. Happiness. Poffin. Slugma."

Primo smiled, his grin nearly reaching his ears. "Exactly! And here's your new little buddy!" He rifled through his sack, pulling out one last egg and handing it to the redhead. "Take care!"

"Have a nice day," Luffy called, already outside. Hypo and Pokey bounded after him, excited about their unhatched friend. Cinders and Toto were right behind them, roaring eagerly when they saw the egg.

…

Cebi watched them go. If only it was _her_ in that egg... Why was a little thing like that given the chance at being his when she could never be with him? It wasn't fair! She huffed angrily, her little wings flapping hard enough to whip up a Whirlwind. One day... Dialga would pay!

…

"When is it going to hatch?" Luffy whined, squeezing his egg tightly.

Gold snatched it away from him quickly. "Don't do that! Your poor pokemon could be crushed in there, and potentially become malformed!"

"What's that?" After trying in vain to grab it back, Luffy latched onto Gold's back and twisted the boy's limbs with his rubbery ones to force him to hand the egg back.

Gold struggled out of the rubber death-grip, panting slightly. "I'm just saying, be careful! The Ralts could turn out all weird, and have things seriously wrong with its physical and mental make-up!"

"Oh," Luffy moaned, throwing the sphere against the cave wall.

Silver shrieked, scrambling up to the egg and hugging it to his chest. "What are you doing?! Your actions aren't matching what you're saying at all!"

"I hope my pokeman hatches soon," Luffy crowed, blatantly ignoring him and skipping to the exit of Union Cave. His pokemon bounded at his heels, Hyperbeam being awake for once.

Silver and Gold stared after them. "I just hope Luffy isn't disappointed when it happens," Gold sighed, standing up to follow. "That little Ralts better be all right..."

…

Silver collapsed in the short grass, his knees giving out completely. Gold stumbled to a stop next to him, longing to do the same. Cinders and Toto whined and nudged the fallen boy sadly.

Luffy shot past, his egg held against his stomach as he ran circles around the town. Hyperbeam and Pokey had fallen asleep long ago. "Come on, hatch! I know you can do it!"

Gold gazed after him. "He's been running much more than us. Shouldn't that egg have hatched by now?" He crouched next to his comrade, voicing his quiet concerns.

"It's pretty obvious that thing is dead," Silver growled, rubbing Toto for comfort. "How could a pokemon kill one of its own kind?"

Gold shrugged. "They knock each other out in trainer battles all the time, don't they? …Eh?!"

Silver screamed suddenly, writhing on the ground as he clutched his chest. Gold yelped, scanning the boy for any overlooked injuries.

"Are you hurt? What's wrong?!" He inched closer while Toto performed a playful spasm to imitate her trainer and amuse Cinders behind them.

As Luffy ran by again, the redhead pulled his egg out of his shirt pocket, his eyes wide. "My Slugma..." The egg shook, lines appearing on the shell and trickles of lava sliding down. Silver cried out again, and Gold assumed he needed help holding it.

He reached out to take the egg, but jerked back instinctively at the extreme heat emanating from it. Realizing what was going on, Gold understood the only solution. "Drop it! It'll be all right; it's practically lava!"

Silver shook his head silently, teeth gritted. He was determined not to let anything happen to his pokemon, even if it meant terrible pain on his part. But Gold couldn't watch his nakama suffering like that. He slapped the boy's arm, and the egg tumbled to the ground.

Both boys recoiled in shock as the egg exploded in a devastating splash of lava, splattering their clothing and burning their skin. Silver stared as the magma cascaded to the ground, forming a small puddle that was not even remotely sluggish.

"Are you sure it was a pokemon, and not a bomb?" He asked hesitantly, looking up at Gold. Luffy darted past them again, giving the lava puddle an odd look and managing to pat Cinders on the back at the same time.

Gold sighed, scrutinizing the blob sadly before returning his attention to his friend. "Primo always was pretty sketchy..."

"EXACTLY!" Luffy's voice rang out from the other side of Azalea Town. Silver ignored him.

"I guess Bugsy will just have to wait, then..." The redhead turned around to rub Toto's scales.

"Ma…?"

The trainer froze, spinning around to see the molten lava that was now slightly slug-shaped. It chirped as spots of magma slid from its face to reveal bright red, glowing eyes of coal. "My... Slugma?"

Toto watched enviously as her trainer crawled over to his new baby. He reached out a hand, then thought better of it as he remembered the nasty burn on his left palm. "Sluggy..."

"Wawa... Pum!" Toto sprayed a jet of water at them, and the little Slugma shrieked in pain.

"Ma! Mama!"

Engaged, Silver pushed his older pokemon away, reaching for his baby despite his recently-blistered hand. "Sluggy... Oh, Toto is so mean..."

"SLUGGY?! I knew you were bad at nicknames with the Totodile named 'Toto' …but this is just ridiculous!" Gold rolled around on the grass, laughing with mirth. Luffy dashed past him, blinking at Sluggy and rubbing Toto's head that time around.

Silver gazed at his pokemon sadly. The little Slugma had turned black from the water, and was shaking with cold. Taking the baby into his arms, the redhead stood up and speed-walked to the PokeCenter without a word. Toto watched him go worriedly, not sure what she'd done wrong. Her nakama had wanted to pet the new nakama, so she had turned his fire off!

"Luffy! Get back here!" Gold called, looking around for where his rubber nakama had gone. In seconds, the pokemon stood in front of him. As he'd thought, Luffy's egg had stopped shaking long ago, and showed absolutely no signs of hatching.

The boy sighed. Well, someone had to break it to him... "Luffy, that pokemon... isn't going to hatch."

"If my Ralts doesn't want to hatch, that's okay," Luffy said carefully, as if he'd given the matter some thought. "But if it _ does_ decide to come out, I'll be very happy!"

Gold felt like face-palming. "Luffy… that's not how it works. Let me rephrase this; your pokemon _won't _hatch. The Ralts is dead."

To his surprise, the rubber pokemon did not react in any way close to what Gold had expected. Luffy simply shrugged, grinning mysteriously. "He'll hatch if he wants to."

"Hey! Sluggy has cooled down, and I can hold him now!" Silver burst out of the PokeCenter, grinning at his Croconaw. "Thanks a lot, Toto! Let's go train!"

Luffy jumped up and down. "Can I come, too? I love grinding!"

"Sure. Where's Hyperbeam and Pokey?"

The boy scratched his head, thinking for a while. Gold and Silver stared at him as an awkward silence ensued.

"…In the Slowpoke Well."

* * *

Grinding time... I will not be featuring it, though. :p As for how Hypo and Pokey got in the well... They're Luffy's pokeman. What did we expect? And Luffy certainly was pretty whimsical in this chapter…

WHOA SORRY! I FORGOT TO SAY... Yeah, the Ralts isn't dead. Sorry for any confusion.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey, sorry for being so late, guys… I know I don't exactly have scheduled updates, but a week is just too long to make you all wait. -_-

RyuNoRainbow: Primo is in the Violet City PokeCenter in both HeartGold and SoulSilver So the fat guy HAS infiltrated your game, though you may not realize it. He gives out eggs and hidden wallpapers.

And a huge thank-you to all my new followers! ^-^

* * *

Luffy strode into the gym with a superior air and a barely-trained young Slowpoke. "Come on, guys! I see a weird guy down at the end!"

"But we have to cross the pits by Spinarak-cart first," Gold pointed out. Luffy shot him a pitying look, raising his arms slowly for emphasis.

"Gum-Gum Bazooka!" The pokemon catapulted himself and his motley crew across the room, crashing into Bugsy at the far end.

As the gym leader stood up, he flashed an evil glare at the stricken boys. Luffy just chuckled to himself as he wiped the dust off his shirt. "Hey, little boy. Where's the gym leader?"

"I _AM_ the gym leader!" The purple-haired child popped out a pokeball and waved it menacingly. "And I'll have you know, you won't be getting out of here with a conscious pokemon after what you just did!"

Luffy turned to his friends, forming a little huddle. "Can I beat this guy up?"

"Only his pokemon, Luffy. Only his pokemon…" Silver rolled his eyes and gave Gold a look to signal him to say something.

The other boy nodded. "We really should have trained Pokey more. Luffy, are you sure you want to fight Bugsy as he is now?"

"Sure! Hypo's watching my egg, so it's all right. And Pokey here got a lot of training with Sluggy." The rubber pokemon turned to waggle a finger at his Slowpoke, who was petrified with fright. "You can do it! Remember what you learned!"

"The only thing he learned was how to run away," Gold grumbled. "Sluggy's level is twice as high as his by now…"

Bugsy was turning purple with rage. "HEY! Stop ignoring me! I challenged you!"

"Huh? You did?" Luffy shrugged, unfazed. "To me, it sounded like you were going to beat up Pokey! That's a challenge for _ Pokey_, then, isn't it?"

The boy sneered, an ugly look for someone as young as himself. "Go! Scyther! Beat this guy into oblivion!"

"Advanced vocabulary for such a child," Silver remarked.

Bugsy wheeled on him. "You're next! But Scyther, use U-Turn!"

At his command, the bug-type pokemon shot forwards, slicing quickly at Luffy before returning to its pokeball. The rubber boy fell to his knees, staring at his arm in confusion.

"Am I… bleeding?" He held his arm up, inspecting it carefully. "It feels as if I should be, but there's nothing. This is so…"

"Normal?" Gold suggested, but Luffy was already worked up.

Swinging Pokey in a circle, he jumped into the air and slammed the Slowpoke into the green shell Bugsy had sent out. "Freaking WEIRD!"

"Hey! That's not a move!" Bugsy protested as his Metapod fell unconscious.

Silver stared as Luffy rubbed his dazed pokemon tenderly. "If I'm not mistaken… that was a very badly twisted 'Body Slam.'"

"Come on! Send out that Scythe-thing again!" Luffy huffed. Pokey squealed next to him, trying to pull his trainer away by his shirt.

Bugsy looked uncertain at first, then angry. "Like I'd put him up against that weird move! I'll wait until you're out of PP, and then he'll get you good!"

"You're already down to two pokemon, and Luffy's moves are most likely unlimited," Silver sighed. "Just humor him, and it will be easier for yourself."

Bugsy sent out his Kakuna anyway, blatantly ignoring the redhead. He took out a Revive, breaking the packaging with his teeth.

"That's totally against the rules." Gold glared as the gym leader fed the medicine to Metapod.

Luffy and Pokey body-slammed Kakuna, and Bugsy sent out his revived Metapod in response. "Well, I have all these Revives that I rarely have to use unless someone beats me, so I can use them if I want."

"Not in the middle of a battle!"

Bugsy glared at the redhead. "Red and Blue did it all the time, back in their day." Silver turned pale, and Gold took it to mean that the fight over the use of illegal medicine during battle was over. "Come on, buddy. Let's go challenge those puny trainers back there while Luffy is… occupied."

…

"Luffy, you done yet?" Silver groaned, chewing on his shirt subconsciously.

The rubber pokemon shook his head, drops of sweat splattering his friends as his damp hair shook out. "Nah. Get Pokey over here, will you?"

Gold dragged the Slowpoke back to his exhausted master, eliciting several squeals and snaps of Pokey-teeth. "Isn't he out of Revives yet?!"

"Nope. And I'm… so bored…" Luffy's eyes glazed over as he used a Gum-Gum Pistol on the weary Kakuna two meters away. Pokey yawned, rolling over so the boy could grab him and perform a Bodyslam on the Metapod.

Silver spat out his shirt, deciding that Jumpluff cotton didn't taste as good as it looked on the advertisements. "Goodness, Bugsy! How many do you have?!"

"Um, we're down twenty… so, seven hundred to go."

Pokey moaned, flopping onto his belly. Gold looked equally distressed. "Well, Luffy… Could you please shoot us back to the entrance? We end up at a dead end when we try to ride the Spinarak carts."

"That's a terrible design flaw," Luffy yawned, kicking the refreshed Kakuna half-heartedly. Pokey gained a little experience, and grew to level fourteen.

A terrible cry suddenly pierced through the gym, startling the rubber pokemon. "Hey! That sounded like Hyperbeam!" Without a moment's notice, he leapt from the ledge, using his rubber arms to swing to the door. "Help Pokey beat those guys!"

"Luffy…" his friends sighed, turning to face the snotty runt of a gym leader. Silver cracked his knuckles. "All right, then. What do you say we settle this, three on three?"

…

Hyperbeam shrieked again, waving his leaf warily as the grunts steadily came nearer. Unfortunately, his battle cry sounded too much like a scream and his leaf appeared to be trembling, so Team Rocket continued their advance. "Shush, little pokemon. We only want the power of your evolution…"

"Hey! Hyperbeam, what's wrong?!" Luffy burst out of the gym, dashing across the grass to his nakama.

The grunts hesitated. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. A pokemon was much easier to steal when its trainer wasn't around… but Proton had mentioned something like a pokemon that looked like a boy but was really a pokemon, hadn't he? "Uh, get back, little pokemon! This is between your comrade and _us_!"

Luffy looked to Hyperbeam for affirmation. When the Chikorita nodded, he stepped back. "All right. But Hypo, protect that egg at all costs!"

* * *

Sorry, had to quit. Migraine… I'll have another chapter out soon, I promise! Monday or Tuesday! ^-^


	13. Chapter 13

Hi, I'm back, guys/girls! Thanks for your concern, RyuNoRainbow. ^-^ My headaches usually dissipate after a good night's sleep!

caring16: Thank you! I wouldn't call it epic, but I try my hardest. I hope you enjoy the rest of my story; I'm planning on quite a lot of chapters…

RyuNoRainbow: Actually, Pokey is based off of Usopp. Go figure. And oh, sorry! Did I forget to mention that this FanFic is based completely off the Pokemon games? Of course I have HeartGold… also, Platinum and White. I've logged over 300 hours on HG… 56 on Platinum, 10 on White. Not anywhere near done with the last two! ^-^

* * *

Gold wiped his hands, smirking to himself. "Not so tough without your Scyther, huh?"

Bugsy looked down nervously, avoiding the awkwardness of having to look at his fainted pokemon. The Scyther had been the first to go, and Pokey and Sluggy still hadn't taken their turn. "I don't know… Isn't this against the rules? Three trainers battling one gym leader? Not really fair, is it…?"

"HEY! Says the kid who was using Revives like mad just a few minutes ago!" Silver scoffed, kicking the limp body. "And Pokey's acting on his own, so it's sort of like we're just two on two."

"Hah? But you said…" Bugsy scratched his head, finally dropping his gaze to his remaining team out of concern. "Metapod! Harden, now!"

Sluggy streaked forwards before the bug could act, tackling it in a one-hit knockout. Bugsy shrieked in surprise, yelling a random order to his last hope. "Kakuna! Harden!"

The shell managed to complete the move, mostly because Pokey was still terrified out of his mind. He simply stared as his foe built up its defense and glowed a darker green. Bugsy watched carefully, unwrapping another Revive in preparation for his next turn.

"P-poke! Pokey?" The Slowpoke inched forwards, checking over his shoulder at the trainers to ascertain he was supposed to attack.

The gym leader sneered. "What a stupid pokemon! 'Pokemon' is pronounced 'Pokaymon'! Not 'Pokeemon'…"

"Ah? Po! Pokey!" The enraged pokemon flung itself at the Metapod, banging its paws against the shell. Gold and Silver watched boredly, already used to the odd behavior of Luffy's pokemon nakama.

"Doesn't look like Tackle… think it's Mach Punch?"

Silver shook his head. "No, it's not a move I've ever seen. Let's just call it, 'Pokey Hammer'."

"…Sounds good to me. Huh. Hey, Bugsy! Looks like we beat you!"

The boy crouched next to his fallen pokemon in disbelief. "Wha… but Harden always works!" Pokey puffed out its chest proudly as Gold snatched up a gym badge and stuck it to his tail.

Toto popped out of her pokeball and watched enviously as Sluggy and Cinders received a badge as well. Silver felt bad for not using her, but she already had a lot of experience. Now all that was left was to wait for Luffy…

Or… "Bugsy, is there an easy way out of here? You've got to have a back door, right?"

"Why do you think I had all those Revives and berries? Of course there's no way out." Bugsy sighed. "Not unless someone manages to reach me, but if I don't beat them, I can't leave anyway…"

With a rather powerful punch in the face - compliments of Gold - Bugsy found himself falling through the emptiness of his gym' s floor, whereupon he became hopelessly entangled in the Spinarak webs…

…

Hyperbeam hopped around the grunts nimbly, his leaf raised. Their weak rattatas and zubats had long since passed out, but one speedy pidgey remained standing. Luffy was fast asleep, so it was all up to Hypo.

"Come on, Wiffy! Just a little more!" The purple-haired lady pumped a fist in the air as her conniving bird kicked sand into Hyperbeam's eyes.

"Hypo! Beam? Beam beam beam?!" The Chikorita ran around in circles, crying out as the dirt embedded itself in his eyelids. The Rocket grunts looked at each other.

"Now's the time to catch the powerful pokemon! Boss will be so pleased with us!" A dark-haired man darted forwards, reaching out to grab Hyperbeam.

One eye half-open, Hyperbeam mistook the movement as an advance on Luffy's egg. Remembering his trainer's words, he let loose a battle cry and rushed him.

The grunt was two feet away when a raging Hyperbeam's Hyper Beam blasted him across the city. Hitting the pidgey on his way, he collapsed at the base of the PokeMart with the unconscious bird-type pokemon.

Luffy snorted awake just in time to see Hypo drifting off to sleep in the arms of a weird lady with purple hair. "Hey! What are you doing with my nakama?!" His eyes dropped to the egg propped up against the gym and they began burning with a passionate fury. "Give him back! He was protecting my egg!"

"Finders keepers, losers weepers, little boy!" She cackled, running off with her teammates.

Gritting his teeth, the land pirate raced after them. "Hyperbeam isn't something to be found! He's my nakama, and he already beat you! You can't take him!"

"Technically, you're not eligible to own him either, kid," the woman sneered as she dashed ahead. "You're wanted by the government, and criminals aren't guaranteed the right to possess pokemon!"

Luffy put on more speed, having trouble keeping up with from his stretching grip on the faraway building. "You're bad guys, too! Give! Hypo! BACK! Gum-Gum… Bazooka!" With a roar of anger, the rubber boy let go of the gym, slinging his fists ahead of him to slam into Team Rocket.

"No! The pokemon!" The woman cried as Hyperbeam slid out of her grip. The other grunts were equally distressed as dozens of pokeballs filled with stolen pokemon tumbled out of their pockets.

Luffy picked up his still-sleeping Chikorita, fixing the distant specks in Ilex Forest with a triumphant glare. "He's a nakama, not a pokeman! And you better stay away!"

"Ah… what's this? Another powerful little Chikorita, hmm?" A raspy voice shook Luffy from his 'King of the Pokeman' pose. The boy whipped around, on edge once again.

"Hey! Stay away from my nakama!" Adjusting Hyperbeam's underneath his straw hat, he sprinted at the recovered grunt who was currently inspecting the unhatched egg from Primo. All prepared for another Gum-Gum Bazooka, Luffy was surprised when a Marill appeared out of nowhere, knocking the man away. The egg thudded softly back to the ground, and the pirate sighed in relief.

"Wow, thank you, little fella. Or are you a girl? I can't tell-" The rubber boy was whacked in the face with a floatable blue tail-bob. "Ow! Hey! … ah, you're a girl, then…?"

The Marill sniffed haughtily, pointing its chin upwards as if it felt too superior to communicate with the boy.

Luffy nodded, not understanding the gesture. Pulling Hyperbeam off of his head, he knelt next to her. "Hi. This is Hypo, and I'm Luffy! You look lost. Do you want me to take you home or something?"

The pokemon's eyes widened, then she shook her head quickly. Luffy grinned. "It's all right! I get it if you didn't like those boring patches of grass… or maybe you lived in the rivers? You sure are clever if you know to protect pokeman eggs… I have no idea how you beat away that mean guy, but I think you'd be great on my team! You'll have lots of fun of you join my crew, because I'm going to be King of the Pokeman!"

After looking up at him to gauge whether he was serious or not, the Marill slapped him in the face again.

…

Meanwhile, Gold and Silver sat in the Azalea Town gym, waiting… waiting…

* * *

Ah, sorry it's so late! I have some serious time-management issues… as in, I can't do it. Thanks for reading! Would anyone care to hazard a guess as to who the Marill belonged to? Or which One Piece character representative will hatch from the egg? ^-^


	14. Chapter 14

caring16, do you know how much those words mean to me? I've never gotten such a compliment before… I could almost cry! You really feel that way?

Ah… I found the é sign, finally! ^-^ Does this mean I'm going to use 'Pokémon'? …absolutely not.

RyuNoRainbow: Correct you are! I was worried nobody would get it, or at the very least, guess wrong. But Nami hits Luffy a lot, so maybe it was easy? And yes, she did belong to Lyra. …Emphasis on the DID. Remember, Luffy got rid of that annoying girl a long time ago… so the Marill has been searching for a new trainer ever since. … And meet Luffy by _complete _ coincidence! ^-^

Hey, all right! Over 200 visitors, and nearly 1,500 views! Wow, guys… I never thought this little story would be so popular! Thank you, everyone! ^-^

* * *

Luffy cradled the egg in his arms, thinking about the strange pokemon that had suddenly run off after smacking him in the face. He didn't look up from the egg until he bumped into a wall. "Hyperbeam… who put that gym there? …Huh? Oh, that's right! I have to get the other guys out!"

The Chikorita accepted the egg in the wide bowl of his leaf, watching his master enter the dreaded gym once more. He sighed. Would this always happen, from here on out? Left outside with an egg while Luffy had free reign over all the wondrous indoor areas… Why wouldn't this egg just hatch already?!

Hypo slid the egg onto the dirt path. It couldn't be that hard, to break open an egg… Surely the thing inside was ready by now? Hypo raised a stubby leg, his eyes clenched shut in concentration. Preparing for a tremendous slam, the Chikorita inhaled deeply. Unown… Unown…

Before he could reach Unown and stomp down, the Chikorita paused, listening to an odd snapping sound. Could it be Team Rocket, back for more? He opened an eye cautiously.

"Rah… Rawr." A small form crawled out of the broken eggshell, wispy green hair covering its eyes before Hypo could get a good look at them.

He crept closer to the strange creature that was a full foot shorter than himself, scrutinizing the pokemon carefully. Though it didn't look like much, the young thing gave off a powerful aura, and Hyperbeam had to muster a fair amount of courage to nudge it.

"Raw…" At the gentle touch, the Ralts flopped onto the ground, shuddering mightily. Alarmed, Hypo knelt next to it and chirped in concern.

Almost immediately, the pokemon stood back up on wobbly legs and managed a small smile. "Rawr? Ra… Rah!" Hyperbeam understood the situation instantly, and stood next to the Ralts to help it support its own weight.

"Hypo! Hi, hi!" After maneuvering the baby around for a while, Hyperbeam stepped away from it and watched. The Ralts was still unsteady, but it was doing better than before. The Chikorita nodded in satisfaction at his job well done. Now master was sure to take him everywhere!

…

"Hypo! Come on, Gold's…" Luffy stopped short, staring at the two pokemon in front of him. The gym door slid shut on his right leg, but the rubber boy hardly noticed. "Hypo. The egg… hatched?"

A gloved hand forced the door open again, and Silver glared at Luffy. "Keep going! We have to… huh?!"

"Move it, buddy! The pokemon are injured!" Gold rammed into the boys from behind, sending them all flying. Hyperbeam cried out in alarm as Toto and Sluggy stumbled out, battered and bruised. Pokey came out unharmed, but Cinders was nowhere in sight.

Luffy pulled his head out from underneath the pile, stretching his neck in order to do so. As if reading Hypo's mind, he waved a free hand idly. "Oh, those guys? They're fine. They only had one battle, anyway."

"Yeah… _ Luffy _was the one that crashed us all into the wall on the jump back," Silver grumbled from somewhere underneath Gold's bag.

The boy on top eased himself off of Silver's back, still not in the mood to apologize. Hypo caught a glimpse of a limp blue body draped in his arms. "BEAM-BEAM?!"

"Cinders was hurt the most, but…" The redhead was interrupted by a soft cry from behind and a jolt of electricity.

An electric sheep smiled at them from its perch on Luffy's head. "Maw, maweep!"

"This is Sparky," Gold sighed, walking away from the nakama. "Watch her while I take care of these three…"

As Silver helped Luffy up, Hypo witnessed something very strange. Upon seeing the Mareep, the newly-hatched Ralts had undergone a serious personality change.

He trotted up to her, spinning merrily on suddenly strong legs, twirling to a stop in front of the pokemon and raising the flower of a Oran berry plant up. Kneeling on one knee, he showed all signs of eternal devotion to the larger sheep.

"Oh… I guess that's the way emotion pokemon behave all the time?" Silver offered as Luffy stared in horror and disgust. To his surprise, the Ralts' behavior wasn't what he was upset about.

He placed a dirty hand on the green head and steered the little pokemon back to Hypo. "No way, buddy. You can do WAY better than that! I met this really nice blue thing earlier…"

"Ra-raw…" The Ralts zoned out, staring ahead into the woods with a dazed expression. The two trainers peered through the trees, to no avail.

Luffy was about to ask where he was looking, when a familiar cry twittered through the air. "Maw ILL!"

"Oh, the little blue thing!" The rubber pokemon lifted up the Marill and promptly got whipped in the face with a tail. The Ralts looked up at them, watching enviously with its fists clenched.

Silver looked between the three, trying to decide who was more furious; the Marill, the Ralts, or Hyperbeam. The Chikorita was fixing the blue thing with a death glare practically oozing jealousy. The blue thing was glowering at Luffy with outright hate, and the Ralts… If it had eyes, Silver was glad he couldn't see them. The way its whole body was smoking with…

Smoking?! Silver scrolled through his PokeDex, frantically searching for Ralts' entry. …Severe smoke swirling off its body signified…

"Luffy…?"

The pokemon looked up from his dosage of indignant Marill-smacks. "Huh? What is it?"

Silver gulped. "About your Ralts and that Marill…"

"Janis and Babs."

"…Whatever. Jerry or Belle, just… hmm." Silver brought the PokeDex closer to his face, his eyes widening as he read.

Luffy was impatient, setting down Babs and hopping up and down in front of the redhead. "What is it?! What is it?!"

"Er… don't leave them in the Pokemon Daycare together…"

* * *

My Azumarill is named Babs, short for Barbara! …No reason. I just couldn't think of a good name for Nami, so I used one I was already familiar with! ^-^

Oh, and I have a poll on my profile, if you want to give me feedback on your opinion of my FanFic… ^-^ please vote!


	15. Chapter 15

I'm back! Sorry it's so late… thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

Motivation… scarce… what happened… to my Guest reviewer? I miss your comments! If you're still reading during breaks from your schoolwork, please remember your value! And all you other readers, too! Without the friendly reviews from you all, I never would have made it this far! ^-^

RyuNoRainbow: Good trainer? Yes. Good at fighting other trainers? No. But that's quite all right; my Wi-Fi doesn't work with my DSi, either! ^-^ My score is currently 28,888 on HeartGold… Ah, and did you notice that 'Janis' is 'Sanji' rearranged? That's partly why I named him that… the other reason being I couldn't think of anything else! ^-^

* * *

"Janis! Get back here," Luffy commanded, trying to pull his Ralts away from the Croconaw. "Toto doesn't like you! I don't know why you're so obsessed with water-types, anyway…"

Gold stepped out of the PokeCenter at last, carrying a sleeping Cinders. "It's not that they're water-type, Luffy. It's because they're girls."

"Well, that's nice, then! I still don't understand why Silver said not to put them together in a Pokeman Daycare, though…" With a shrug, the clueless rubber boy picked up his squirming pokemon and began stroking him. Janis recoiled at the touch and wiped his hair daintily when it was over, returning his attention to the Croconaw below him.

"Raw rah, raw Ralts! Mmmm…" Janis began humming and slipped out of Luffy's arms with unrealistic flexibility, dropping in front of Toto and raising up a Chesto Berry.

The three trainers stared for a moment, until Silver regained his composure. "…Luffy, all I can say is if that Ralts keeps behaving like this around other pokemon of the opposite gender… he's going to get himself killed!"

"Huh? How?!" Luffy snatched Janis up again, hugging him tightly with a similar reaction from his pokemon. Toto merely watched him struggle, then retrieved the berry and carried it to Silver.

Gold giggled. "Are you kidding? That Ralts practically just _ proposed _ to Toto! How do you think any girl in her right mind would respond?"

"They'd thrash him to within an inch of his life, that's for sure! He's only just hatched, yet he's so forward with the ladies…" Silver smirked, patting Toto as he watched the Ralts.

Luffy shrugged. "Babs would whack his head off if he proposed. …But he didn't. All I heard was something about giving her a me… a sna… some din…"

"What's wrong, buddy?!" Gold cried in alarm, watching his nakama sink to his knees.

Under the mop of black hair, the determined eyes glinted dangerously. "FOOOOOOOOD!"

"…Huh? What about it?" A certain redhead stared at him in confusion.

The boy glared at Silver. "I haven't eaten in such a long time… Don't you care if I die?!"

"What?!" Gold stepped back in surprise. "Breakfast was hours ago… Surely you had some- …Oh, right. You arrived right after I ate… We skipped lunch because of all the excitement, too. But we can go have supper back in New Bark Town, if you want!"

Luffy simply stared at him, eyes widening slowly. "Supper? With food? Lots of food?!"

"Well, of course! Everyone has to eat sometime… Silver broke off as a sudden thought struck him. "Erk! Luffy, how often do you eat?"

He frowned, tapping his hat thoughtfully. "Uh, I like a morning snack, then breakfast, then brunch, then supper, then another snack, then dinner… then snacks all night!" Finished, he looked up at his paling friends in bewilderment. "What is it?"

"Every… day? Every single day, you eat that much?!" Silver looked as if he was about to scream. "We don't have that much money… there's no way anyone would be able to afford that many berries!"

Luffy shook his head in bewilderment. "You can't buy beris! That's… not how it works, or something like that…"

Gold sighed, ignoring him. "I suppose a legendary has greater requirements, huh? Whatever. We can get some berry pots in Goldenrod City, if we can find the flower shop."

Janis visibly perked up, scampering away from his attempts at wooing Toto to grovel at Gold's feet. Luffy translated for him; "Flowers, yes! I must have flowers for my gorgeous Toto~swan! And Babby~swan!"

"Call me that again and I will hit you into the next generation!" Luffy took on a girly voice as Babs twittered angrily beside him.

Gold and Silver stared at her. "I'm suddenly really glad I can't understand pokemon half the time," the redhead whispered.

"…Yeah. Though it makes me wonder how they get along in the wild."

Luffy was still chattering on in the terribly squeaky feminine voice, oblivious to his friends' conversation. "And if you get near Toto ever again, I'm going to take back what I said about your hair!" The last comment seemed to have a heavy effect on Janis, and he stopped skipping in place abruptly.

"Wait, what did she say about his hair?" Gold found himself asking despite himself. Babs fixed her blazing eyes on him and the boy turned away in shame.

Luffy stretched out a hand to pull the Marill close. "Aww, she just mentioned how cute his hairstyle was… Right, Babs?"

"Just forget it. It doesn't matter," Silver moaned as Luffy received another tail-whip. "We really have to start through Ilex Forest now. Luffy, if you want any form of food, Goldenrod City is still our best bet!"

Gold stumbled after his nakama as they ran off, somehow clutching both Cinders and Hyperbeam. "Guys… wait for me?"

…

"Wah, I'm so lost!"

Silver peered through the mess of trees in alarm. "Guys, did you hear that?"

"Hear what? Oh, you mean Hypo? He's really loud when he snores… sorry," Luffy mumbled insincerly, hands over his ears. It didn't seem to be working, as the pokemon cringed with each loud honk that could be heard from his Chikorita.

Gold rolled his eyes, pointing at the figure in front of them. "It's a lost little girl." Cinders barked in agreement, awake again and trotting happily at his nakama's side.

Red eyes flashed from under the stranger's hood. "_Who are you calling a little girl_?!"

"Eep! We're just trying to help you," Gold whimpered, performing his expression of shame once more.

Luffy strode up to her confidently. "Hey. We're lost, to-"

Janis exhaled slowly from his perch on his master's head. Luffy had a rather large, red footprint on his face and an antidote spray bottle crammed into his mouth.

"Rah… Rah Rawr Ralts Ra~alts!" Jumping to the ground, Janis twirled around in an intricate dance, leading the Kimono Girl further up the path. His hair was bulging slightly, and Gold thought he could almost see little hearts beating in place of his eyes…

Silver chuckled, watching Toto and Babs stare after their suitor in disbelief. "Don't take it too seriously, girls. …Sluggy, what are you doing?!"

"Slug. Slug mama." The lava pokemon moved over to them; 'blobbing,' as Luffy liked to call it.

The trainers looked to Luffy for translation, but he had his hands over his ears again. Hyperbeam was performing the move Sleep Talk, and a ball of energy was forming in his mouth.

"HEY, LUFFY! Drop him, quick!" Silver slammed into the rubber boy, knocking off the straw hat the Chikorita had been sleeping on.

Luffy cradled the explosive pokemon to his chest. "What did you do that for?! …Hey, look at that! So pretty…" He reached out a finger to touch the throbbing sphere in the small green mouth.

Two boys and five pokemon face-palmed as the two pokemon exploded in a blast of surging power. Pokey and Sparky came out of their pokeballs just for the occasion, and Pokey slammed himself so hard Silver was sure he'd fall unconscious in twenty-four hours…

"…What." Luffy shook himself out, his eyes wide and motionless. His singed red vest flapped silently in the eerie wind of the forest as Hypo bounced off the ground, using a move Gold had only ever seen before with Ponytas on television.

Janis came running back, squeaking in frustration and anger. "Rawr raw raw, raw rawrrr Ralts!"

"Oh, sorry I scared her away. I didn't mean to…" Luffy looked around in confusion. "What happened, anyway?" The fifth pokemon face-palmed, followed by the sixth, who was still fast asleep.

Gold sighed. The stupidity of legendary pokemon… If he ever saw Ho-oh, that thing was getting pummeled for experience… "Luffy, let's just get to the exit."

Janis began squealing again, pointing at the path with visible stress.

"That's okay," Luffy laughed. "If anything, we can train you, huh?"

Silver didn't want to ask but he knew he had to. "Luffy…"

Though the rubber pokemon already knew his question, he wanted to be hard on the redhead. "…Yes?"

"What did he say?" Gold asked, showing none of the unease that Silver was sure he felt. "Tell us, Luffy!"

The rubber pokemon flashed them a twisted smile. "Ah, the marines have found us!"

"…Marines?" Silver tilted his head sideways in unison with five conscious pokemon. "Do you mean the Policemen?"

"…Yeah, sure. Those guys. And they're out there, waiting for us! Let's go!"


	16. Chapter 16

Guest: Yes, Absolutely. My profile has the recognition for your phenomenal achievement! ^-^ And actually, Janis will… never mind.

RyuNoRainbow: Thanks, as always. Ah, and I really wasn't sure if anyone was going to remember that blasted girl in the woods… I had to restart my game without saving and play back to get a good idea of what this story was going to be like. Bloody policemen is right! I'm making fun of them in this chapter; hope you enjoy! ^-^

caring16: *bows* 'S okay.

Ah, looking at the work of other authors on this site… mine seems like a joke! …but that's the point, right? A simple source of comic relief, severely lacking in descriptive regards for the ease of reading. …right? Someone please tell me I'm right. Or your own viewpoint or spin on the _purpose _of this odd little story… methinks I'm losing faith in meself.

* * *

"Begone, foul Marines! Or I, captain Luffy of the Pokeman Pirates, will beat you anyway!"

The sole policeman jolted awake, propping himself up against the wall and glaring at the boy. "Who are you?"

Hyperbeam squealed in delight, glad to see he wasn't the only one who slept on the job …and promptly fell asleep.

"Hey… Since when were we 'Pokeman Pirates'? I was under the impression it was 'Hyper Team'…" Gold stopped before he got started, realizing it was pointless to argue with such a whimsical pokemon as Luffy.

The boy in question had already lost interest, squatting on the ground and throwing leaves at his sleeping Chikorita and talking to his pokeballs. "Hey, Pokey! Wanna come out yet?"

The Slowpoke shuddered from inside its pokeball. The policemen were just too scary, with those shining lights on a stick… how did they even have things like those, when Chinchou were supposed to be able to do the exact same thing?

"Are you ignoring me?!" Spit flew in the boys' faces as the forgotten policeman cried out angrily. "I'll have to warn you; my Growlithe is strong enough to make you wish you'd never-"

"Look at this, Babs! What kind of leaf do you think this is…?" Luffy twirled a dead leaf in his fingers, making idle chitchat with his Marill and seeming not to notice the water-type's reaction to the remotely grass-related thing.

"H-hey! Grr… Go, Growlithe!"

Silver glared at him. "Would it kill you to nickname your lifelong companions for once?!"

"Eh… why are you not sending out a pokemon? I _challenged _you, you redheaded little boy!" The policeman ignored the comment and continued his rave. "If you don't-"

"It's obvious you don't have a single gym badge, and yet new pet is a level 14. Since you clearly just caught him, I'm willing to bet he isn't too keen on obeying your every command just yet." Gold shrugged, gesturing at the bored fire-type, who was staring up at the ceiling. "But that's life…"

The policemen gaped at him, stuttering in bewilderment. "But, but I… wait a second. That Chikorita is way over level 40, but that kid looks fully capable of controlling it! How-"

"He's a pokemon. A freelancing rubber-type legendary pokemon," Silver sighed.

The rubber-type in question looked up from torturing Babs. "Pokemon _ trainer_!"

"Why… why do you keep interrupting-"

"Shut up already, and let Toto get just a little closer to your fat policeman trousers," Luffy suggested, tossing away his leaf. The second it hit the ground, Babs leapt on him with the full fury of her tail whip technique.

Silver groaned. "Luffy, why'd you warn him?"

"…To see that beautiful expression."

The boy trainers had to admit, it wasn't every day they saw a policeman turn around to see a giant pair of Croconaw jaws aiming for his rear; much less hear his high-pitched scream of terror. Gold and Silver were only slightly creeped out by Luffy's twisted grin as he watched.

Silver's Slugma took the opportunity to sear the unguarded bum with a blast of lava, eliciting a terrible screech and alerting all policemen in the area. "Slug, slug mama!"

Disregarding the hurting PoliceDude, Gold thought silently for a moment, then turned to Luffy. "Say, Sluggy said that earlier, too… Would you care to translate, please?"

"Er… no." Luffy's smile had twisted even more, but now from disgust rather than malice.

The reaction served only to further intrigue Gold. "Come on, please? I'll give you a berry!"

"Well… okay, fine. 'Slugs. Slugs need nakama.'" Luffy pulled an Oran berry out of Gold's bag, shaking off his Marill in order to reach it.

Gold simply stared at him. "…What's so disgusting about slugs needing friends?"

"Because they're disgusting, that's what! No one wants an ugly blob of horror as a friend!" The policeman piped up from his awkward position on the floor.

Sluggy roared out in anger, slamming the prone figure with another Fire Blast.

"…I don't mind what you think about my Slugma, but please be more considerate about his feelings, Luffy."

The pokemon grinned normally - normally here meaning revealing all his teeth in an alarming display of elasticity. "Oh, I think he's really great! It's just, he wanted to be friends with PoliceDude's feet, and that was just too weird."

Silver blanched. "…I see. But how does he know Fire Blast, again?"

"Oh, Hyperbeam taught him a few hours ago, when he was still awake." Bored once more, Luffy returned to the leaves and began playing with them again. Babs was instantly on edge, tensing up in preparation for another whipping.

Gold sighed. "Whatever, guys. But we need to get moving, before the policeman's backup arrives." He pulled Sparky out of the Items pouch in his bag and put her back in her pokeball. "Come on, out, Cinders. We might need you…"

"To?" Silver's Croconaw looked up from where she'd been gnawing on filthy policeman fingers.

"Yeah, why?" Luffy whined, dropping his leaf again. "We don't need to leave, do we, Hy-" The resulting whips and snarls from Babs prevented him from finishing his sentence.

Silver waved a hand around them. "We're in a small secluded area between the Ilex Forest and Route 34. It's an ideal location for am ambush from both sides by those blasted policemen, Luffy!"

"Actually, there's only one other guy on patrol besides me… I stumbled in here looking for you pirates, but _he _was way down on Route 35," PoliceDude muttered darkly from the floor.

Ignoring him, Silver regarded Luffy again. "How did you get those leaves in here at all? We didn't even get _near_ the ones around those Far Fetch'd you knocked out…"

"Huh?" Luffy dropped his armload of leaves, right on top of his pokemon. "Oh, Hypo molted."

"Molted?! Chikoritas don't…" Gold trailed off, staring at the sleeping pokemon. Amidst the scuffling sounds of Babs attacking her trainer again, he couldn't help but notice the legendary had a point.

Hyperbeam was missing small parts of his green skin, which apparently was just a millions of tiny scales clumped together. As Gold watched, another scale peeled off and drifted to the ground. Before it landed, it had crumpled into a small, brown, crusty embodiment of the scythe-leaf on top of the pokemon's head.

"What is it? What's going on?" Silver asked, a bit slow on the uptake. "Who's molting?" Catching a glimpse of the Chikorita, he stopped short and began shuddering.

Before Gold could ask what was wrong, a second policeman strode into the room and immediately began kicking the second. "Scoundrel! Imposter! Who are you, and why have you failed to control the Growlithe?!"

"Hah?" Gold cried, pulling the snarling Cinders away from the two. "You mean, he's not a…"

Luffy jumped up, accidentally flinging the still-flailing Babs onto the two government - ? - officials. They were hit with a weak Water Pulse, and subsequently collapsed from the power of unseen forces.

"Hey! That guy's pokemon wasn't listening to him!"

Gold and Silver face-palmed. "You just now noticed?!"

"Huh. That's okay, though, right? We can keep him, can't we?" Luffy was practically bouncing… No, Gold realized, he _was _bouncing off the walls of the small construction. The guide gave him a look, glowering up from the pages of his tabloid magazine.

Silver sighed. "Luffy, that's just as bad as how Team Rocket steals pokemon!"

Hyperbeam snorted awake at that. Glaring at the loud boy who had woken him, he trotted over to the policemen and yanked off their caps.

The boys gasped. Underneath the large hat was that of a Team Rocket grunt. The second policeman had been trying to let them both escape, to avoid the relatively high chance of being found out by pirates.

"I knew it!" Gold cried. "It was just a big conspiracy all along!" Silver had turned pale again, while Luffy was cocking his head in confusion.

"I don't get it. Why _is _Hypo molting?"

"Er, Luffy… Now's not the time," Silver muttered, pulling his friend away from the unconscious grunts. "Babs is looking really dangerous right now…"

In truth, the Marill had used a form of Splash to force water down their throats and temporarily drown them, causing unconsciousness. But the boys were unaware of this and had yet to summon up enough courage to approach her.

"So," Gold remarked casually, trying to draw attention away from Luffy's eccentric pokemon. "Why _ is _ Hyperbeam losing scales, Silver?"

The redhead bowed his head sadly. "I'm… in afraid that pokemon has caught a rare strain of Pokerus…"

The scaly little Chikorita hopped up next to his trainer, completely oblivious of his danger and begging to be picked up. Luffy gave in, since Babs was preoccupied with standing on top of the Rocket grunts like an ancient Dragonite slayer…


	17. Chapter 17

Oh… someone isn't following anymore? Or were they ever following? I suppose… I got too boring in one of those chapters back there… :(

RyuNoRainbow: Heh… I'll try, but I'm not sure about what I can do there… ^-^

* * *

"_G__et away from me, you crazy old man_!" Luffy came streaking back to his nakama, his attempt to take Hypo to a PokeCenter having completely failed. An aging man with his hands folded behind his back darted after him. Gold and Silver stepped back to avoid being trampled, and proceeded to watch the action unfold.

"Wait! I haven't told you what she looked like yet!" The man skidded to a stop in front of the boys, nodding to the pokemon as he recovered himself. "My granddaughter is missing, young man," he explained to Janis. "Have you seen a girl with two long pigtails coming this way recently?"

Janis stared at him for a moment, then shook his head. How anyone could mistake a Ralts for a boy was beyond Gold… Then again, he himself had mistaken Luffy for a boy.

"Hey, haven't we seen someone like that? I can't remember where from, though," Luffy thought aloud, running a hand over his hat. Silver sighed, but he hadn't expected anything else from Luffy.

The man turned from Janis and peered intently at Babs. "I say! If it isn't little Charlie! What are you doing here, and where do I know you from…"

"You're getting senile, dear!" An elderly woman shuffled up to them and patted her husband on the shoulder. "Charlie was Lyra's Marill, remember?"

The man nodded furiously all of a sudden, startling the pokemon. "That's right! May we have Charlie back? He might be able to help us find Lyra."

"I don't think so," Luffy scoffed, pulling the pokemon back by the tail. Adjusting Hyperbeam in his arms, he continued. "Babs is my nakama, and anyway, she couldn't find anyone if she tried!"

The lady shook her head. "No, our _Charlie _is well known for his ability to find people and things! He was ever so helpful when I lost my dentures…" She turned to Janis, patting him on the head. "Sweet little boy, don't you agree we should get our pokemon back?"

"Wait, Babs came to us of her own free will, and she shouldn't have to go back to you if she doesn't want to," Luffy grumbled, hugging the water-type closer. The Marill was eyeing Hyperbeam uneasily, reconsidering her choice to stay with the pirate group.

Janis shook his head, still dazed from being called a 'sweet little boy.' Shaking the hair out of his eyes for a brief second, he looked up at what surely must be the most wonderful creature, one that had blessed him with such kind words. "Ralk!" Immediately letting his hair drop down again, the Ralts bowed his head in complete mortification. How… how could such an ugly old thing exist?!

"Gold, they were annoying me," Luffy whined. "They said they wouldn't let me past until I listened to everything they had to say… Can I _please_ get rid of them?"

His words filled the boy with an odd sense of familiarity… Hadn't…? Oh, no. These old folks were Lyra's grandparents, the dreaded Daycare Couple! "Ah, go ahead! By all means, Luffy!"

"Yes. This couple is indeed fearsome," Silver muttered under his breath so only his friends could hear. "They bombard your PokeGear with calls when you leave your pokemon with them, and then demand money if you ever want them back. Many a child has left a favorite with them, never to see it again…"

The old man shrugged, his hearing aids apparently having kicked in for that short amount of time. "If they can't pay, they aren't deserving of a pokemon, anyway!"

"Oh, would you like us to watch your cute little pokemon? It looks like one of those new types. What do you think, dear?" The lady was crouched next to Silver's bag on the path, petting it gently. "We'd take great care if it…"

The man grinned, his eyes squinting even further shut. "Yeah, a Hoppip! It's all white, too. Could it be shiny?"

"I think so," the woman whispered. Her ears were clearly not what they used to be, and the boys could hear her well. "Think we can sell it on the black market?"

That was all it took for Gold to snap. "_CONSPI~RACY!_" He cried, landing a flying kick on the man's chest. His victim toppled into a puddle, and Babs used Surf to sweep him into the river, as well.

"I won't ask," Gold muttered, turning away from the freakishly powerful pokemon. Leave it to Luffy…

The woman cried out, dropping the pack and shuffling to the water's edge. A small silhouette was sinking slowly in the depths… "Honey! If you die… If you die, just know I get to finally sell your Ferrari!"

"GAAAH!" The grizzled face burst out, startling everyone out of their minds. "No, you're not! That's-"

"Gum-Gum Bazooka!" Luffy cried, getting it over with and smacking the two seniors into the air. As the couple winked out of sight in the dusty red sky, he turned to his companions and sighed.

"Hyperbeam is even worse now… Let's get him to the PokeCenter right away!" He set off, leaving Gold and Silver staring at Janis. Somehow he had offended Babs, and was lying unconscious on the ground.

"Uh, Luffy… You might want to take this guy, too…"

…

The nurse nodded again. "Yes, I said Pokerus. But I won't repeat this, and neither will any of my other numerous clones, so if you miss out now you'll spend the rest of your miserable life utterly oblivious, with no idea what the purple **PKRS** box that pops up on your PokeDex stands for!" She flashed the boy a sparkling smile, designed to make certain rock-type gym leaders turn to jello and give her all their money.

Luffy, unaffected, trembled with rage. "_What are you doing standing around and talking while my pokemon is in pain?!"_

She blinked. Behind her a Chansey moaned, detecting the dangerous aura emanating from the rubber boy. It hid the little stone it liked to carry around, pushing it deeper into the pouch for protection. "Chance, chance?"

"Well, then. We can just skip it, and I can heal your pokemon and never mention the more-common-than-we-like-to-tell-everyone-disease again!"

"…It's a conspiracy! Gum-Gum Pistol!"

…

Luffy trotted back to his friend two hours later with a familiar Kimono Girl and his scaly Chikorita. "Oh, here you are! This nice lady helped me find you, but I never would have guessed you'd be at a game center…" He looked around at his friends and their pokemon, but eventually found it unable to look away from the two solitary men smoking at the second lonesome table.

"Where else would we be after our nakama leaves for such a long time and we're bored as heck?" Gold flipped over a card and pulled a pile of coins from the center of the table.

The man sitting across from him actually looked _happy t_o be losing, and his face lit up each time the boy scored a winning card. "Amazing… how do you do that?"

"Strategy and pure good luck," Silver sighed from the far left corner of the room. "How could you not know how to play your own game?"

The man shrugged, shoving a significantly larger stack of coins to Gold this time, his face gleaming with feverish sweat. "I just watch; it's not my job to manufacture the plastic-lead coins. I just have to give them away to little children and old people so as to poison the minds and bodies of our future and senior generations as quickly as possible, thus lowering the world's population and solving poverty, starvation, and the overall economic crisis!"

**…**

"…_CONSPI~RACY_!" Gold shrieked, flinging his coins at the man and then gathering them back up in his coin case just as quickly. The other people watched in stunned silence, equally disturbed by both outbursts and not sure which person to be more afraid of.

"Hey… the word 'piracy' is in 'conspiracy,'" Luffy whispered after a brief pause. The four adults in the room had to stop their jaws from touching the floor. Someone had finally found out!

"That's…"

_Oh, no._

"That is…"

_No, no, no…_

"…SO COOL!"

…How typical of a tourist. The Kimono Girl exhaled deeply in relief. Leave it to a foreigner to completely fail to realize how tight-knit pokemon and piracy were woven together… The secret was safe. For now…

* * *

Raise your hand; who even bothers to play in that Game Corner? I got Porygon; that was it.

As for Pokerus… my Ho-oh had it. I skipped over the speech by accident, and was utterly confused about the weird little face until I finally looked up the thing called 'Pokerus'…

Now four of my eight Skitty have it, as do four Absol… :( …So this chapter was my revenge! :D

…why?! Why must they be so cruel?!

Oh, can anyone give me feedback on this; they contracted it from an egg. I don't know about these things… Should I hatch it regardless?


	18. Chapter 18

Sorry I'm late, you all! Thanks for sticking with me this far… I have some readers from ** Lithuania ** and I just want to tell them that is _so cool! ^-^_

Guest: Urm, Hancock? ^-^ and what kind of pokemon would she be? ^-^ …Iadded anew character this chapter at random, just playing around with ideas about the people in Goldenrod City. ^-^ If you can think of a Straw Hat crew member for Lucario to represent, I'd be happy to introduce it… maybe Franky? I could also see Robin as one…

RyuNoRainbow: No Pokerus? Aw, now I_ really_ wish we could use Wi-Fi…

caring16: Heh, I go back sometimes, too… trying to save up for Hidden Power TMs for all my Skitty… used the first one for Lavender's ghost-type! ^-^ (she hatched in Lavender Town… °-°)

AAAH! There's two Guests! Now what…? :[ … But thank you, O second one. Could you be bothered to create a nickname? I know I'm being a hypocrite here -see my PM history… oh wait, don't- but there's already a super-Guest commenter. If you end up reading this far, please consider a nickname for me to call you by! ^-^

* * *

Hyperbeam's chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm as he slept. Luffy kept checking on him, lifting up the flap of his new bag periodically as he walked. "How long will be be sick, do you think?"

"Not sure," Silver replied. "Depending on whether you put him in the PC or not, he could have Pokerus forever."

Luffy yelped, accidentally sliding a hand down the Chikorita's leaf and cutting himself. "Forever?! But Hypo can't be sick that long! We have to become the Pokeman Kings! Or at least, he's going to help _ me_…"

"No, the disease takes two days to run its course," Gold muttered, clutching Cinders tighter every time Hyperbeam sneezed in his sleep. "Only if you keep him in the PC will he continue to host the parasites."

Primo shuddered. "_Parasites_?! How gross, how awful! You should get that thing healed right away!"

Long seconds passed as the four people walked through Goldenrod City. Then the boys turned on the black market dealer with accusing fingers. "_What are you doing following us around?!_"

"I have to stay on the move, you know. The cops would catch up to me in no time if I always stayed in Violet City…"

Gold laughed maniacally, drawing curious glances from the townsfolk. "What a joke! Don't you know the police are all part of…" He moved his lips purposefully, trying to make Primo beg for the answer to the conspiracy.

"TEAM ROCKET!" Luffy yelled. Gold promptly smacked him in the face, and Babs hopped over to whip him, as well. Hypo was still asleep in the boy's pack, yet he managed to maneuver his leaf out and slice a rubber wrist as he rolled over.

"W-what was that for?" The boy whimpered, longing to grab his aching wounds but not willing to let go of his pack in order to do so. "I was just warning you about that guy over there…"

Silver nodded, gesturing at a figure clad in black who was standing in front of the Radio Tower. "He's right. That is most certainly a member of the organization that steals pokemon." Glancing at Primo, he added, "…But they have nothing to do with the police."

"Yeah, they do. Whoever told you that is full of baloney! Giovanni himself made that announcement via the black intercom three years ago. It's common fact nowadays…" Primo chuckled to himself, tossing a Magikarp coin into the air. "Dang it - tails!"

Luffy leaned over the man's shoulder. "What does tails mean?"

"It means Team Rocket won't target the tower today. But… what are you staring at, boy?!"

Gold couldn't find words for a long while. After a slow inhale, he managed, "Black intercom… a conspiracy? I can't tell…"

"Shut up," Luffy snapped. "He's watching us…" The rubber pokemon dodged the grunt's gaze each direction he turned, hugging Hypo tightly through the canvas bag.

Then the man approached them leisurely, hands behind his back and a wry smile plastered on his face. "Out for a walk? This is just a radio tower, and you have nothing to worry about. Move along!"

"I smell a conspiracy here…" Gold set down Cinders, his face set. "How about we battle?"

The grunt stepped back in surprise. "Hang on, aren't you only supposed to _accept _challenges? You can't just walk up to someone and challenge them yourself!"

"Who came up with that rule?!" Silver scoffed, sending out Sluggy. "It's no fair if we can't ask to battle other trainers at any old time we want, when they're always challenging us!"

Luffy began to clap, seating himself on the pavement and cracking open a candy bar. "Cool, guys! A two-on-one battle!"

"Y-you can't do this," the man stuttered, visibly stressed. "This kind of battle just isn't fair!"

Gold shrugged. "Little twins and couples hold battles like this all the time! They always lose, though…"

The grunt gulped. What was he supposed to do in a situation like this? He'd tried to guard the Radio Tower like he'd been ordered, but these children were making it hard. Should he just send James out, then? …It seemed there was no other choice. Too bad for the children…

"Go, James! Beat the snot right out of them!" He squealed, throwing out the Great Ball. Watching James battle was always fun… Sometimes the flowing pokemon fought himself into a trance, performing a rare series of steps, hops, and slides that the grunt liked to call 'Sword Dance'.

"Abs, sol…" James popped out with a bored expression, as always. His trainer thrust out his chest, pleased as punch with his living weapon. Having captured James at level 15, the Absol was now a 25, and could cream Whitney's bloody Miltank with one hit if he so chose. The grunt's uneasy demeanor had all been an act, to cover up how powerful his pokemon was.

While his nakama simply stared at the exotic creature, Luffy immediately raced up to the white pokemon, dropping his wrapper on the path. "So cool! Where did you find this thing?!"

"Ah, you know," the man replied, acting bashful when he was practically exploding with pride. "In the Slowpoke Well, when I was jamming out to my favorite song… Apparently, James likes it, too!"

Luffy's eyes gleamed as he calculated how long it would take to get there and back in his head. "An Absol… with Slowpoke? Pokey, did you ever see an Absol…?"

The addressed pokeball rocked gently, indicating that the answer was a definite 'no'. "Are you lying?" The rubber boy asked suspiciously. The pokeball lay still, and Gold rolled his eyes.

"No matter where he found it, it's a pokemon that we're going to beat up!" A determined look on his face, the trainer directed his Quilava's attention to their gothic foe.

The Rocket grunt crossed his arms with an air of superiority. "This will be over soon… and you'll be sorry you ever challenged trainer N! Now go, James! Show them our bonds of friendship!"

The Absol streaked forward at a speed even Cinders had trouble keeping up with. Luffy just stared in amazement at the colorful display of light, barely noticing when Cinders was thrown backwards against the fence. "Ja~mes!"

"Wait… that's just weird!" The hypocrite cried. "Why would you make your pokemon say such a stupid thing as their cry? I mean, _ James_?!"

Silver shook his head, calling Sluggy out of the fray. "Swift… It's clear my nakama would only get hurt if I kept him in battle against such a fierce opponent. My only hope for this battle… is _ you_, Toto!" Whipping out a pokeball, the redhead braced himself for the fierce battle that would ensue…

* * *

N makes an appearance! Having snuck out of his happy little home or whatever, he is masquerading as a Team Rocket grunt to train his new pokemon in a foreign region; pre-Black/White. If you haven't played the game, rest assured; I don't know much about it either! ^-^ Just keep in mind he's a pro-pokemon friendship kid, probably 15 - ? - in here. For those of you who _have_ played…his thoughts haven't been twisted into releasing pokemon yet. …Some sort of alternative dimension where the folks who raised him didn't think of that.

Absol makes a cameo appearance! ^-^ NOT me… definitely not a Lonely Absol. He's a happy Absol.

Okay, just to clarify, _I know next to nothing about N._ I've only battled him twice in White (I like to take my time grinding) and my sister forced me to read the wiki page. If I make an error regarding his character/personality in future chapters, please notify me as soon as possible, preferably a PM, so I can fix it right away! Thanks! ^-^


	19. Chapter 19

Sorry guys! I just want to say, **I have not gotten lazier. **The delays were due to a freakishly detailed project, and I am SO sorry for being late!

RyuNoRainbow: Hmm? Well, I've read one nuzlocke before… Maybe I'll check that one out. And what is that game you mentioned? Never heard of it… Heh. Badges? 2. I told you I haven't gotten very far! ^-^ As for the easiest region… Johto! No-brainer; it's the only one I've actually done by myself! Only 6 badges on Platinum so far, and of course just the two on White. I wanna say this if my sis ever reads this far… _ When I asked you to help me beat the Kanto League, I meant to beat only the__** first**__ gym leader! _ Who wants to guess what she did instead? D:

caring16: Do tell more about this game… }:D

And guess what? Next chapter I finally run equal to my FFIII FanFic! 20 chapters… this will be my longest story yet! ^-^

* * *

Luffy lay back in grass, rubbing Hyperbeam's rough scales. Cinders was huddled next to them, shivering as he tried to recover from the Absol's attack.

Gold sat next to his pokemon to encourage him to stand again, but he soon saw it was not going to happen. He whirled on the Absol's trainer. "You blasted… look what you've done to his feet!"

N stared at the deep slices, emotionless but for a slight frown. "That's the problem, isn't it? Your pokemon chose to get involved because of your order. Each time you start a battle, you place your trust in each other, even though he is the only one at risk. And he didn't _have _to obey, but he trusted you to direct him well."

"No, he followed commands because the boy has two gym badges," Silver pointed out, gesturing at the Zephyr and Hive badges on the Quilava's ears. Cinders chose that moment to flare up the flames on his head, melting a bit of plastic off of Bugsy's prize.

N sighed. "You foolish children. Just let James gain experience from your high-level pokemon, and I'll let you leave with no further problems."

"Why should we do that?" Luffy whispered from under his tree. His voice was slightly muffled from Babs sitting on his face, but he continued. "I don't care if James is strong; he'll never be able to beat Hypo!"

"Are you sure about that?" The Team Rocket impersonator turned his attention to Luffy, causing several face-palms. Silver was the only one who sighed in relief, thankful his young Sluggy wouldn't have to take on the Absol.

James himself was still standing motionless in the same spot, white fur shining in the light of the setting sun. He appeared bored, yet still hopeful for a fight he could participate in. Silver's Slugma shivered as the hard red eyes slid over him, scrutinizing the weak points of his Magma Shell.

"Hypo can take anyone, any day!" Luffy boasted, standing and placing his hands on his hips. After a pitiful whimper from the Chikorita in question, he smiled guiltily at N. "…Just not today."

The other boy laughed, his long hair whipping out from under his cap and falling down his back. "All right, then. Let's see how your Marill can hold out against my big guy!" At his words, James stamped his feet and let loose an intimidating roar.

Babs squeaked, jumping into the last spare pokeball Luffy owned. One of Kurt's famous suffocating Fast Balls was much safer than a bloodthirsty dark-type pokemon. She huddled in the cramped area, justifying her actions to herself. Luffy and Hypo were more than a match for James, anyway. She would have just gotten in the way!

"Er, Pokey? Now would be a good time to come out." Luffy patted his bag, and a pink paw reached out of a pokeball to zip up the pouch from the inside. "…No?"

Silver stared at the bag, his mind reeling from the pokemanipulation he'd just witnessed. "How is that even possible…?"

"It's not. But keep in mind this is Luffy we're talking about," Gold sighed, tapping his head. "Who knows what effects he's had on his poor pokemon…"

N looked back and forth between the two in growing frustration. "I was under the impression we were having a pokemon battle… but if you are unable to continue fighting, I shall consider it a forfeit and claim my money prize!"

"Well, that'll be hard, 'cause we're sort of broke right now!" Luffy laughed, swinging from an open window of the tall building above him unconsciously, stretching out his arms over twenty feet. "We only challenged you because we thought we'd w-"

N cried out, jumping back from him as if the boy had emitted a force field. "Hey! W-what is that kid doing?!"

"Huh, Luffy? He's not a kid. He's just a special pokemon." Gold was getting tired of explaining. If only Luffy would stop slipping up with little things like this all the time…

The long-haired boy was dubious. "But he talks, like a legendary… yet he's clearly a boy."

Gold and Silver blanched. How could they have missed that?! Legendary pokemon were always gender-less! "Um, that's how he's special? We think he's a… Chatot and Mankey hybrid," Silver offered, his on-the-spot theory seeming to convince his adversary.

"I like Chatot. They're not common in this region, and terrible at talking, too… your 'Luffy' is special, indeed!" N sighed, staring off into the depths of the windows in the radio tower with glazed eyes. "I had a Chatot once…"

Gold shifted uncomfortably, too polite to ask what a Chatot was. "…Once? Did something happen?"

"I had to leave her behind when I came here," N snapped curtly, his hoarse voice revealing that the topic was sensitive. Too late, Gold bit back on his lip and cursed his own rudeness.

Luffy let go of the frame, hopping up to the black-clad boy with his extra momentum. "That's okay. I'm sure you'll find her again, just like I'll be seeing Cebi again one day! Because pokemon are nakama, and you're always friends, no matter where you are or what you do!" Flashing the boy a thumbs up, he snapped twice with his other hand.

A streak of green-white zipped in front of them before N had a chance to blink. James perked up, his head jerking about to follow the object's path around his trainer. "Ja~mes!"

"Good job, Janis! Did you train well in the radio place?" Luffy held out a sandaled foot, which his Ralts bumped back with a light kick. Sort of like a fist bump with feet, Silver observed. What would the rubber-type think of next?

"A… Ralts? You have a Ralts?! Oh my goodness! I've always wanted a Ralts! Where did you get him? He's so cu-" N was silenced by a sharp kick in the place where it hurts the most, and he dropped to the ground silently.

Janis held his head high, uninterested in the wacky trainer. Still haughty, he raised up a scrap of paper for Luffy to read. The boy tilted his head, puzzled by the strange handwriting in the even stranger language.

Silver chuckled, a hand in front of his mouth. "Seems like your pokemon was more concerned with Mary's signature than training!"

"I'm surprised he didn't try for Buena's!"

The redhead gave Gold an odd look. "I don't think Buena is a girl… I don't even know if Buena _ has _a gender!"

"Raw raw! Jan is raw!" Janis clapped his hands, circling the Absol at a slower rate.

"Luffy… tell me that sounded weird to you, too," Gold begged. "'Jan is raw'?! _Please _tell me it wasn't just me!"

The boy slid his straw hat over his eyes and crouched down next to N. Blatantly ignoring his friend's request, he helped the mortally-wounded boy stand. "Are you alright? Ready for a battle?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," was the response through gritted teeth.

"Then, go! Janis, use Karate Kick!" Luffy pointed at James, urging his Ralts to make the first move. The pokemon ignored him, feinting an attack on the Absol and using Psychic instead.

Once he realized it was having no effect, Janis desperately tried for a Karate Kick, but it was too late. James rushed at him with Swift, sending sharp beams of light swirling at the Ralts. He followed up with a quick bite while the Ralts was still struggling to stand after the last attack.

"Go, James! Finish him!" N sheepishly looked over at the sweating Luffy. "Sorry. You know how training goes. One must fall…"

He stopped, noticing something strange going on in the small section of road that was serving as the battlefield. Janis was foaming at the mouth, sick with disgust at being bitten by another male. "Raw… raw… Jan is raw!"

"We know Jan is raw, but will you please tell us what that means?" Silver asked politely.

When his friend received no response, Gold turned to Luffy. "Come on, what did he say?!"

The boy clenched his jaw. "He said… he said… 'Poffins will never taste good if they're not for Babby! If you disregard this simple law, I will kick the living daylights out of you and follow you to the depths of your darkest nightmares. There is no escape. I will become your living death, and you will never see the light of day again…'"

"…Bit of a mouthful for such a short sentence, huh?" Silver looked at the others, then hung his head in shame under their stern glares. No one understands redheads…

Janis was still frothing as he began to taunt his foe. While James was trying to use Swift again, the Ralts performed Swagger, Psych Up, Frustration, Torment, and Flash.

The Absol's brain threatening to explode, he sat down to take a breather. Janis was instantly all over him, clawing and scratching with Thunderbolt, Facade, Round, Shadow Ball, Charge Beam, and Magical Leaf. Finishing up with a roundhouse kick to the face, the Ralts landed lightly on the ground in front of the unrecognizable jump and bowed. "Jan is raw!"


	20. Chapter 20

YAY! 20th chapter! ^-^ Thanks for sticking with me for this long; I have over 50 readers! So happy…

KingKishin: Wah sorry! Meant no offense, just wanted to clear things up… and I want to thank you properly now for all your support! Just was confused… you said 'nest reviewer' and I didn't know what that meant…

caring16: Ah, so we know next to nothing about it… ^-^ sounds good!

RyuNoRainbow: That's nice… have fun head-shotting your sister, then!

All other reviewers who stopped around chapter 5: …Are you still reading? Because if you are, let me know and I will gladly reply to your comments!

* * *

N groaned, dropping to his knees as he gripped his throbbing head. "What… that's not even…"

"Jan. Is. Raw," Janis threatened, holding up his fists and growling. Luffy clapped energetically, jostling Hyperbeam with each movement.

"You did well, buddy! Come back now. I want to talk to this guy." Striding up to the defeated boy, the rubber pokemon looked far more mature than usual. "You have a really powerful pokeman, and I like your spirit. Would you consider…"

Gold rammed into Luffy from behind, waving a hand at the figure on the ground. "Ignore him, please! We're not interested in any more people in our party; we've got enough as it is…"

"Since when do we have a big crew? Real pirates have _hundreds _of sailors under their command," Luffy whined, extending his arms in a display of how much he thought 'hundreds' was - twenty meters, both ways. He managed to break through several buildings on the way, knocking people aside and invoking angry glares.

Silver pulled him aside and spoke to him in the same manner an adult would speak to a misbehaving toddler. "Luffy, you can count, right?" At the sullen nod, he continued. "Add up us and our pokemon and tell me how many that is."

"Let's see… Hypo, Pokey, Janis, Babs, me, Cinders, Sparky, Gold, SLuggy, Toto, and you. That's… three." Luffy moaned and pulled at the redhead's sleeve. "Come on, if we have two more, we'll have five!"

Gold face-palmed. "We'll have _thirteen_, Luffy. That's a bad number."

"Well, we're just getting closer and closer to a hundred, then, aren't we?" Luffy grinned, folding his arms above his head and rocking back and forth on the balls of his heels. "So, how about it, buddy? Join my pirate crew!"

N didn't respond, continuing to stare at his unconscious James.

The Absol really did look badly battered, and Silver was beginning to feel afraid of Janis. Just knowing a little Ralts like him was capable of beating up a pokemon with a type advantage… and he'd used more than four moves, like Hypo!

"_Plee~ase_?" Luffy begged, all traces of maturity gone. He knelt on the ground next to N, pulling out a Revive and spraying it on the Absol. "We're really great, and you'll be helping me become the King of the Pokeman!"

The boy pushed him away, lifting James' feeble head into his lap. "If we could develop a bond only half as strong as the one you had with your Ralts… then it would be an honor to join you as a member of your pirate crew, no matter how illegal you are!" N lifted his head, manly tears streaming down his face. "It'll only be me and James; I promise the short kid it's only us from now on! We'll be no trouble at all, and try our best to help and train under y-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Luffy snapped, shaking his head. "I don't like this you already! We need a fun guy, not somebody all serious! Stop with that face and promise me you'll be perfectly carefree!"

"I promise, Master," N whispered with glistening eyes, James hugged tightly to his chest.

…

Five hours later, the boy had completely given up. "It's all just because you're a special pokemon, Luffy! James and I will never be as good as you are. Grinding doesn't even work for us here… James is a level 44 Absol in a field of pokemon four times as weak as him!"

"Who cares? Hr's having fun, isn't he?" Luffy was romping through the tall grass of Route 34 with Pokey, chopsticks stretched between their noses and bottom lips.

N had to admit the pokemon had a point. His Absol had never looked quite as happy as he did now, speeding through the tall grass and pouncing on unsuspecting rattata and drowzee.

"Hey Luffy, we've got an interesting little fellow cornered over here!" Gold called. "Thought you might want to have a look at him… her… um, it?"

The rubber boy bounded off, leaving N standing in the patch of grass across from the former Pokemon Daycare. Gold's mother was turning it into a dance club. "Want to go see what all the fuss is about, big guy?" In response, James leapt after Luffy's receding form, eager to see the genderless creature that somehow wasn't a legendary. N knew it could only be the lost pokemon of a Team Rocket member that he had met a while back… Primo's blasted shapeshifter!

He turned to the dance club instead, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. Now was his chance… Luffy's Ralts stepped up beside him, equally excited. "Let's hit on the la- …I mean, dance floor!"

…

"Dit. Dit, ditto." The shapeless purple blob oozed around, bouncing slightly as the boys stared.

Silver skimmed through the Pokedex entry. "Looks like a… pokemon that can change its form into a different pokemon?"

"Looks like…" Silver's voice repeated, and all the trainers gasped as the sentence was repeated word for word. They looked around frantically for its source before Gold raised a trembling arm to point at the Ditto. Its little lips moved in a perfect imitation of Silver's, even capturing the puzzled expression that had accompanied it. "Different pokemon? Different pokemon?"

Luffy stomped on it in a fit of anger. "It's poke_man_, stupid! Get your words right!"

"It's poke_man_, stupid! Stupid! STUPID!" The Ditto emitted a tinny laugh that sounded exactly like the boy in front of it. "Shishishi! Stupid! Get your words right!"

Silver face-palmed. "Luffy… there are some things you just don't teach to a talking pokemon. And that was one of them."

"Yeah," Gold agreed. "It's bad enough that _you_ learned it, but that you'd-"

"I don't care! This thing is cool!" Luffy's eyes were sparkling like a Normal Badge gone terribly wrong. "Can we catch it, please?"

N shook his head, stumbling up to the group. "There's no point. The daycare couple is gone, and they've been replaced by the most terrible things in the world…"

Gold could only stare at the lipstick stains on the boy's face. What was his mother doing in that hut?! Those kisses looked like…

"Smoochum," Janis said glumly, staggering up to Luffy and crawling into his eggshell without lifting his head. His arms, legs, and face were coated in a thick layer of lipstick, and he looked thoroughly miserable about it. "Smoochum, Jynx. Jan is war."

Silver sighed. "What possessed you to go into a new dance club you know nothing about?"

"I…" N shook his head, picking up Babs and squeezing her to splash off the stains. "That was nothing like the clubs in Unova and…" He passed out in the grass, the tragic result of a Tail Whip thrashing dealt out by an angry Marill.

Luffy giggled, rubbing the Ditto on the head. "We'll take you with us anyway. You don't need a pokeball to be part of the Pokeman Pirates!"

"I don't care! There's no point! This thing is cool, Pokeman Pirates!"


	21. Chapter 21

900 readers total… 50 reviews as of now… how did my story get so popular? And why are the reviews all from the same people? Keep commenting; I love you guys, but the 30 lurkers who don't voice their opinions now may not be happy with later chapters… just sayin'. ^-^

** This chapter hints at Luffy's past, way back with Ace and Sabo… Just a heads up, though it shouldn't be a squick for those who've seen/read it, hmm?**

caring16: Your Butterfree is accepted! *slaps face* Now wake up!

RyuNoRainbow: Heh, of course not. Didn't I mention in an earlier chapter that he was raised differently by whoever-the-heck-raised-him? I'm not sure where he grew up, but in this FanFic he ran away before his head could be filled with nonsense. …or genius, whichever way you look at it.

KingKishin: Whoa, please don't take offense! I was merely trying to clarify, as there was another guest for a while… And congrats on the account! Are you going to start FanFics of your own? ^-^

* * *

"So as I was saying, if we don't speak for five minutes, the Ditto will forget all the vocabulary and therefore stop jabbering!" Silver looked pleased with his plan, gazing at the others for praise.

N and Gold remained silent, obediently following his orders. Luffy, on the other hand… "Well, what if the _ Ditto _ keeps talking for five minutes? Wouldn't it be able to keep saying the same stuff over and over again for as long as it likes?"

"If that's the case, Janis might as well put it to sleep with a powder," N piped up. Brimming with sudden ideas, he continued. "Or we could overload its memory with the same word, or sound! And if that got annoying, we could always make it faint! Or send it to the dance club-"

Luffy's bag shook as a sick Ralts trembled in his pokeball. "Maybe you should stop talking," Gold suggested. The others nodded agreement, while Silver proceeded to tie a rag over Luffy's mouth to take care of one problem before it started.

The Ditto everyone had been arguing about was bouncing along, completely ignoring them as it enjoyed its walk. Whitney's gym was small, but there were many beautiful girls waving at the newcomers. Feeling masculine today, the Ditto imagined all of the gestures were aimed at 'him'. He filled his mind with the flirtatious greetings of the Beauties as Sparky and Sluggy wiped out their pokemon.

"You're too strong!" He whined at Sparky, who puffed up with pride. "Stop being a meanie!" The Mareep instantly took offense, and sent a Thunderbolt at the shapeless blob.

Ditto took advantage of the battle situation and used Transform. A carbon copy of Gold's pokemon, he tackled the real one off of the high platform while her trainer wasn't looking. "Meep!" He twittered, copying the cry Sparky had made as she'd fallen to the bottom floor. It would take her a while to find the stairs…

Pokey glared at him; the only witness to the mutinous act. Luffy had already gone on to the next trainer to watch N battle, and Gold and Silver were deep in a conversation about whether or not there was a Poffin House in Kanto. Since Pokey was only a cowardly Slowpoke, the ditto-Sparky ignored him and wagged its odd tail.

"Po! Key, poke pokey!" Pokey ran on to his trainer instead, forgetting that the team was supposed to stay silent to limit the ditto's vocabulary. A spilled, congealed Potion evolving into an electric sheep… If anyone could fix it, his rubber trainer could!

Luffy turned around, pulling out the dirty rag to joke around with his nakama. "What's that? A notion about pills is revolving with sleepy Manectric?"

"Manectric are really rare," Gold whispered, not comprehending that Luffy was jesting. "But why would it be revolving… with a pill idea?"

Pokey shook his head, frustrated and bewildered, as well. Ditto-Sparky trotted up next to him, giving the Slowpoke an idea. "Key poke a pokey, key slow-py!" He chirped, tapping the imposter passionately.

Silver, still recovering from the shock that Poffin Houses were extinct, only heard what Luffy said next; "I'm in love with a Croconaw and red is a stupid color…?"

"Hey!" The boy roared, rubbing his hair self-consciously. "Red just so happens to be a nice color when you get used to it, Luffy! And if you dare lay a stretchy fingernail on my Toto, the last short seconds of your life will be the most miserable ones yet!"

Luffy's eyes glazed over, a guarded look shadowing his earlier, cheerful expression. Without a word, he turned and abruptly kicked ditto-Sparky across the room.

Gold was about to let loose with an even worse threat than his companion, this one about his own pokemon, when he felt a familiar surge of electricity by his ankle. Though it still reminded him of the Magnezone at Oak's lab, he smiled down at his Mareep. "Hey there, Sparky! …Sparky?! Um… wait a second. Luffy!"

"If you guys can't take a joke, I won't make them anymore," Luffy muttered, his back to the boys. Pokey lay draped in his arms, concerned for his trainer but enjoying the attention. "That ditto was just being rude, and that's all there is to it."

Silver exchanged a worried glance with Gold. They had never seen the rubber pokemon like this, and it was a bit disconcerting. An unhappy Luffy was a foreign Luffy, and they didn't know how to respond. Silver opened his mouth to apologize, but closed it quickly when he realized he didn't know what to be sorry for.

N turned around, having beaten his second Beauty. Expecting words of advice from his tutor, he was surprised to see the boy striding away in a huff. "…What happened here?"

"Meep! Spark a meep," Sparky said sadly. Her little horns quivered as she watched the Slowpoke who had saved her get carried away.

N nodded thoughtfully. "Silver made Luffy remember his past, you say? Sounds like he just needs some time alone." He turned to the other boys, who were gaping openly. "Shut your mouths already! You'll catch Yanma with them if you leave them open for too long."

"You can understand pokemon?" Gold gasped. He regarded his Mareep warily. "And she can understand Luffy?!"

"An incredible skill, I know," Silver remarked dryly, still unnerved by Luffy's mood. "That legendary is just unreadable in times like this."

N frowned. "Well, of course he has feelings. Even a pokemon can tell when someone is remembering an abusive childhood! Who knows whether it was poachers or trainers, but that creature has been attacked before… And you just brought on a painful memory of that terrible event!"

The redhead's gaze dropped to the ground, his expression ashamed. "I'm sorry… I couldn't tell…"

N shook his head. "The one you should be apologizing to is outside by the PokeCenter. Now go." He watched the other boy leave, then reluctantly turned to Gold. "What a troublesome Ditto. Yet Luffy is still heartbroken over kicking it…"

"Um, what was the big deal, anyway?" Gold stood on the tall floor awkwardly, trying to judge the situation.

The teenager sighed. "It was quite clear to me that our friend has taken rough beatings. I would have thought the scar under his eye was proof enough. And the way he winces when any creature takes a hit… it's as if he knows exactly what it feels like. That empathy was great enough to trouble him to take that filthy Ditto to the PokeCenter…" N trailed off, studying the floor pattern intensively.

Gold kept silent, realizing his friends had backgrounds he hadn't even thought to ask about. And N had such insight in regard to the emotions of others… He gazed about at Sparky, Babs, Sluggy, and the exhausted James. What had the wild pokemon been through during the tall grass, before they'd been added to the trainer's parties? Not to mention Pokey, who had that odd nose… How much bullying had he suffered under, to be reduced to that small corner where Luffy had found him? What was Luffy's family like? And why had Silver run away from home? With a start, Gold realized he didn't know any of his friends at all.

…

"Luffy, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"Drop it," the boy muttered, brushing past Silver as he headed back to the gym. "The Ditto will learn more words, and you wouldn't want your peaceful day to be interrupted by a disposable creature."

Silver took a step back, the harsh words stinging like a Beedrill. What had made his friend so resentful all of the sudden? "Luffy… we're still nakama, right?"

The boy stopped abruptly, his straw hat sliding to one side as he contemplated his answer. The redhead held his breath until, "I guess so."

"…Then why are you overreacting to that one little remark?! I was only joking, I think…" Silver stared at the ground, thinking back on his words. He really _had_ meant to inflict his friend harm if Luffy had tried anything with Toto… But now that he thought about it, that wasn't really his friend's style. Why had he ever thought those were Luffy's words?! "Hey, I didn't know you were joking… I couldn't see Pokey, and I-"

Luffy whirled around, his flaming eyes startling the other boy into silence. "I said we're still friends, okay?! It's not your fault!"

The redhead felt like sinking into the pavement… Luffy had used 'friend' instead of 'nakama'… And Silver still didn't know what he'd done wrong. Maybe… "Luffy, were the injuries of your past your father's fault?"

A light smirk played on his friend's face, yet Luffy's eyes seemed sad. "In a way…"

"Oh… well, then…" Silver flushed, embarrassed by the very thought of the close shave he had avoided. This wasn't the same thing, and if he had blurted that out…

"So, what about your father?"

He looked up sharply to see Luffy's smirk stretch wider. "He didn't… he was great!"

"You say 'was'… So he's dead now?" Luffy frowned. "That's too bad. He never got to abandon you while he was still alive, then.

Silver flinched as he realized what the pokemon was talking about. Pokemon lives seemed just as complicated as those of humans. It couldn't hurt to show a little empathy… "Essentially, he did. Ignoring me no matter how hard I tried to please… Always fawning over that blasted photo of Mom! H-he never let me catch a pokemon of my own. He never… I never got to…" Surprised, he put a hand up to his eyes and felt wetness. It had been so long since he'd let himself remember those awful years. That Luffy was watching this only made it worse…

But when he looked up, the rubber pokemon had averted his gaze and was crooning gently to his bag, where the Ditto and Janis were sleeping. Silver blinked, confused. Was Luffy ignoring his pain? Or was he acknowledging it and letting his friend cry it out without interruption…?

"Sorry I reacted so terribly," Luffy muttered at length. "I'm not sure why I even did that… Yours was just an idle threat. And _that_ pain wasn't as terrible as it would have been if Ace and Sabo never became my nakama…"

For a moment Silver thought he was talking about himself and Gold, but then he understood that the names were friends of the past. The way Luffy was gazing into the dark sky with an unfocused glaze was enough to indicate that fact. He wondered what sort of people in the past Luffy would have found friendship in, then shook his head at the absurdity. All that came to mind was a rag-tag band of weirdos; a green-haired swordsman, a foxy thief, a coward, and a womanizer.

"Hey, did you know…" Luffy began speaking, and the redhead pulled his thoughts from Luffy and began to listen to the long list of Luffy's antics with a pokemon named Ace and a creature called Sabo. Soon he felt himself drifting off, and sleep finally caught up with the boy who had spent over twenty-four hours playing with his new pokemon…

…

Gold pumped his fist into the air. "Yeah, Cinders! Good job with Fire Blast; if you hadn't used it, we'd never have beaten that Miltank!" He began to dance with his pokemon, letting Sparky zap their ankles in time with the victory music playing over the intercom.

N let out a long breath. It was about time he changed clothes… Upon seeing the Team Rocket uniform, Whitney had forfeited her match with him and given up the badge right off the bat. …Not that he needed it. After all, he'd beaten all of the gym leaders in Kanto and challenged the Elite Four. How he had hated Bruno…

"Hey guys, we're back!" Luffy waved at his friends from the high platform before dropping down to join them at Whitney's pedestal. Silver lay slung over his shoulder.

Gold was afraid to ask. "Erm, Luffy? What did you… do to him?"

"Huh? Oh, he fell asleep." The boy dropped his friend in a snoring heap on the floor and strode up to Whitney with a renewed confidence. Clearing his throat in preparation for his challenge statement, he threw out Janis.

N listened to the outrageous challenge in amusement. Whatever Silver had told the pokemon, it had been the right thing. …But sending out Janis in front of a nearly hysterical, cute girl had been a big mistake. The Ralts looked up, instantly infatuated by the accidental wink that had squeezed out a tear. "Jan. Is. Mee-RAWR."

Gold could just imagine the pokemon's eyes lighting up at the faint prospect of catching the eye of a vaguely beautiful girl. …No, he realized; Whitney wasn't even vaguely _pretty_. She was downright ugly, and didn't even deserve to own pokemon… He started, gazing at his balled-up fists in wonder. Was this what Luffy felt every time he saw people abusing the power of pokemon? Or was it just a childish reaction to a girl too stuck-up to live?

"You're ugly," Luffy blurted, swiping a swift left uppercut at the girl. It struck her square in the jaw, and the momentum of the blow sent Whitney flying through the back wall and into a house further behind the gym.

Gold and N looked on in shock as Luffy picked up the two Normal Badges that had been left behind and applied one to Janis' hair. The other he fixed onto Toto, finding Sluggy too hot to fix anything to. "Good work, guys! Ah, girl, I mean! Girl! I'm sorry!"

Gold nodded to himself as Silver's Croconaw and the boy's own Ralts thrashed the rubber pokemon., for completely different reasons. It was good to see Luffy back to his old self again… The Pokeman Pirates had a slight chance at reaching the Champion with him around.

Pulling his redheaded friend onto his back, Gold set off with his nakama through the Whitney-sized hole. Ecruteak was waiting!

* * *

Whoa, that was surprisingly serious… and seriously long. You're welcome! And the usual, short, stress-relieving Luffy antics will be out Tuesday, I hope. The length of this chapter was an apology for my past two late updates… Thanks for reading! ^-^


	22. Chapter 22

Sorry I'm late! …But I had to sleep sometime… And apparently, I've reached the 50-document limit. I didn't know there was a limit… said goodbye to my first-ever FanFiction chapter that was removed a while ago anyway due to terrible-ness.

caring16: What do you mean, about the old hag and Whitney?

RyuNoRainbow: Thanks for catching that! And thanks! ^-^ How did your presentation go?

Readers, please be informed that I no longer have custody of my HeartGold game. It has been stolen… Too much goes on in Ecruteak for me not to have a reference. …Other than the internet, which I only use for gym battles. So our heroes are now going where they were going to go, anyway! ^-^

* * *

"Whatever happened to continuing on to Ecruteak?" Gold kicked at the tall weeds and scowled. So much for the Kimono Girls…

N shared his pain. Leaning against the large fountain in the center of the National Park, he called out to his teacher. "Luffy, can't we _please _get through this place already?"

"Shh!" Their tour guide hissed, turning away from his conversation momentarily to wave a fist at the boys. He and Luffy were deep in an argument about whether or not there should be a Bug-Catching Contest on a Wednesday.

"This place is filled with stupid owl-things!" Luffy cried, tugging at his opponent's red coat as he slid to the ground. "Can't we try and catch just _one_ of those little things you keep in the cages?!"

Gold shook his head. "If you want one that bad, you have to put up a more convincing argument than those incredibly annoying Hoothoots that must die at all cost. You can argue better than tha-"

"Then you can do it for me!" Luffy's arm shot out, and he switched places with his friend in seconds. "I wanna go check out The Poke-math-lion!" N trotted after him, hoping the competition was just an excuse to get to Ecruteak. To his dismay, Luffy really did head into the small building that connected the park and the PokeAthlon with each other.

Hypo was nearly bursting with excitement as they walked, shedding scales everywhere. "I promised him I'd take him here, back when he was asleep on that one route," Luffy explained. N nodded along, unsure how that made any sense.

At the dome, the trainers stepped through the sliding door into an air-conditioned building that reeked of Pokemon sweat. Hyperbeam cried out suddenly, staring at the monitors. "Chiko!"

"Don't take offense; that Chikorita is a very poor example of your species," N soothed, patting the Chikorita before Luffy could move. Honestly, the nerve of those cameramen… If they were going to film a race between starters, they should at least have captured them all at the same speed!

Luffy shrugged and strode up to the counter, where a lady with a familiar-looking hairstyle stood. "You want to enter a contest? Fine by me… Which course? Speed, Jump, Power, Skill, or Stamina?"

"Uh…" The boy frowned. He hadn't known there were this many competitions to choose from…

"Hy!"

Luffy jumped at his nakama's cry, then got ahold of himself. "Speed! I want to enter a Speed Course!"

"In those clothes?! Boy, you need some better-" The girl with attitude found herself flying through the closest monitor at a speed that would make a Rapidash sick with envy. The resulting corruption of the screen resulted in the green sprite flashing through the track while the Cyndaquil and Totodile trudged along at a Slowpoke pace.

Hypo screeched in victory to see his team winning, but N was less than amused. "Those things cost a fortune, Luffy! If we have to pay for that, Silver could go bankrupt after just the first payment!"

"I don't see how a box that shows the same thing over and over would cost any more than a pokeball," Luffy grumbled, lifting up Hypo to give him a better look at the screen. High-heeled feet kicked out from the television, and the screen fizzled black. "It broke, buddy… So now it's time to show everyone how fast you guys _ really_ are!"

Releasing Pokey and Janis, the rubber pokemon leapt over the counter and through the door. As Babs was nowhere to be found, N talked to the other lady and got a -legal- entrance into the Speed Course with James. Luckily, she didn't ask if he had more than one pokemon until he was at the door, so he counted it as being within the grounds of the law.

…

"Use… Tackle?" Silver shook his head as Gold ordered Luffy's Marill to perform another weak move with the even weaker pokemon. Each turn, the opponent Metapod raised its defenses with Harden, foreshadowing a long and grueling battle.

The tour guide had only agreed to let out one bug pokemon, and regardless of its uselessness, Gold was going to catch it. Avoiding powerful moves for fear of a critical hit, tackle was the most the trainer would use. It had already been fifteen turns… Silver groaned.

"Babs, use Water Gun!" He commanded, whipping out his PokeDex to take control of her. She obeyed, and the Metapod's HP went down slightly on the Dex screen. "Use it again!"

Gold watched nervously, practically biting his nails until Silver closed his device and stepped back. The bug had retained approximately two hit points, and the boy threw his only Safari Ball instantly, worried the Marill might want to attack the helpless creature again.

"Three, two, one… and it's caught," the guide cheered in an indifferent tone that made Silver wonder how exciting his job really was. Next to him, Gold was already taking the battered pokemon out of its ball.

"I'm going to call you Flapper, 'cause you're going to be a Butterfree one day! Sparky, you want to meet your new friend?"

Averting his eyes from the cutesy scene so he wouldn't be forced to give in, the redhead decided to ask his question to the guide. "Er, what is your job like? I can't imagine it'd be very exciting, what with the standing around doing nothing on most of the days of the week…"

"You're darn right, it's no fun!" The man shocked Silver with his sudden outburst, his face turning as red as his coat. "It's the most boring job they could ever assign to a proud trainer such as myself, when I work with traditional Rattatas and Zubat like the rest of my clan…" He covered his mouth suddenly, as if realizing a mistake and trying to prevent any more.

It was too late. Gold had long deserted his fun and games with Flapper. Marching up to the guide, he ripped off the ruby-colored cap. The black beanie of Team Rocket stared back at him. "_CONSPI~RACY!"_

…

Luffy catapulted over the last hurdle, coming second only to Hyperbeam. Pokey put on one last spurt of energy to finish just before Janis. Their combined time was 70 seconds.

"We won! We won!" Luffy danced in a circle with the shedding Hypo, while Janis glowered at the long-nosed Slowpoke. "What's the next challenge? We can beat it, easy!"

"Ahem." a supervisor cleared his throat from behind them, and began reading off a sheet as soon as the pokemon turned around. "More than four pokemon in a PokeAthlon team are not allowed. Violations of this rule can and will result in-" He glared in annoyance at the receding figures of Luffy and his team, already headed for the Beach Dome.

Luffy grinned at N, who was approaching from the right. "Nice thirty-five seconds! You beat me that time, but catching pennants is my specialty!"

"Oh, really?" N scratched James' head, doubting his teacher already. Just the way Luffy's eyes were skimming right over the little pennants on the court…

"Yesh! We're going to win," Luffy affirmed, nodding his head like a PokeCenter nurse on espresso. Hypo and Janis copied the gesture, while Pokey merely yawned. "So, what are pennants?"

N crossed his arms triumphantly. "I knew it! You've got no clue! And you expect me to tell you all about them, don't you?"

"Well, I_ am _teaching _you_ about bonds with nakama. This PokeAthlon thing just happens to be one of them," Luffy huffed as he entered the dome. N followed him moments later, only to find the boy stretched out on the sand.

"Luffy… what are you doing?"

The straw hat was completely covering his face by now, so only Luffy's voice could be heard. "Sand, N!"

His friend nodded. "I can see that!" He could also see Pokey, halfway buried in the floor by an unknown force. Janis was strolling nonchalantly away from the scene, dusting off his legs. Hypo was next to Luffy, rubbing his face through the grit to scratch away loose scales. "But why are you all playing in it? Are there any special skills to be gained here?"

"Sand attack."

"Obviously! For Arceus' sake, Luffy, just tell me what you're doing!" N felt his cheeks flush as James began rolling with the other pokemon, clearly enjoying himself.

Luffy looked over, his eyes visible beneath his hat. They were slightly clouded, and his voice was husky when he finally spoke. "It's sand."

"It's…" N closed his eyes, trying to think of way to get Luffy out of the floor before the other PokeAthlon competitors noticed. "Of course this is sand! It's a beach, Luffy!"

The boy sat up, rubbing his eyes. "But there's no water here… So it's still just sand." He stood up and reached down for Hypo. N was getting sick of the sand already, and James still had to play capture the flag…

"Oh, did I tell you what pennants are? They're flags, and you have to take as many as possible in order to win. Do you understand?"

"No! I could never take someone's pirate flag! That's their-"

N clapped a hand over the rubber mouth. "Shh; there are… _ marines _ here! And the flags are fake. If you don't steal as many as possible, the co- I mean, the marines will take you to jail."

Luffy's eyes widened, and they flickered over to the lone Team Rocket member standing up in the balcony. Pushing N's cold hand away, he stared intently at the man. There was a dramatic standoff for a long moment, then suddenly Luffy jumped up.

"You blinked! I win!"

N's mouth dropped. "Hey… are you going to make a competition out of everything?!" He snapped his fingers for James, and the Absol was at his side in a leap and a bound. "Please, just get him to the starting lanes…"

"Abso!"

…

The grunt sat tied and gagged, propped up against the fountain. Silver wrung his hands anxiously. "Don't you think you've gone a little too far, Gold?"

The other boy placed his hands on his hips, viewing his captive from every angle. "Even if I have, no one will see him. After all, nobody comes here except for those creepy people…"

Silver knew he was right, but even that one lady's gold nugget hadn't been enough to convince him of their sincerity. Besides, good-natured people called the cops when they saw someone tied up, no matter whether Team Rocket grunt or trainer lad. "Still, you may want to hide him in a less-public place."

Dark eyes widened, and the grunt shook his head furiously. "Arf rrf wurrf mrrruf!"

"Doggy!" The Ditto cried, popping out of nowhere with a word that strangely made sense in this situation.

"Exactly! Let's dress him up like Entei and stash him behind a tree somewhere!" Gold rubbed his hands together in maniacal delight.

The redhead edged away from him cautiously, more than terribly disturbed. Gold was turning out to be more frightening than the conspiracies they were uncovering…

"What are you doing to Pro- Er, that little wannabe cop there?" A policeman strode up to the boys, and Gold promptly removed his hat. "Hey! What in the name of…"

"What are you going to do, Mr _ Policeman_? It would seem that I know your secret identity!" Gold waved the ragged cap in front of the grunt's face gleefully.

The second man endured the teasing without comment. Then, "What are _you _ going to do, little _trainer boy_? It would seem you do not know who it is you have captured! And you have been seen with another one of our men… He goes by 'N'. You've seen him, surely?"

"We… sir, what are you…" Gold stammered, dropping the cap as his shoulders slumped. "Hey… this feels funny…"

Too late, Silver saw the small Paras that had used Sleep Powder on his friend. All he could do was stare as little spores drifted towards himself, as well. The last thing he heard before succumbing to the darkness was the soft murmur of masculine voices… "Proton, are you all right? How did two children do this to you?!"

"It's complicated, 'Vanni. We can talk about it later…"

* * *

I get the feeling my quality has dropped… :(


	23. Chapter 23

Ah, thanks, you two. It wasn't the best chapter, though… I was dead tired when I got it out. :( But thanks for your support, and sorry this one is so late. I may have to start slower updates to allow for better quality…

And if you thought Chapter Three was gut-wrenchingly sad… twenty-chapter anniversary of the feels!

* * *

Cebi watched silently as the boy led his pokemon to complete and utter failure, jumping on umbrellas and rolling in the sand for a total of zero pennants. Nearby, N had succeeded in collecting over thirty, but James was exhausted by the end. What was the purpose in this? It all looked like madness to Cebi. Like Luffy had said; stealing flags was wrong. But wasn't it even worse to do nothing at all…? Dialga would have her head if he caught _her_ slacking!

…Which he was about to do. A rift in time was approaching, and only Dialga could be creating a presence that massive. Cebi was under strict orders to avoid this time period, under penalty of The Box. She shuddered. She'd known she would never have been able to hide this visit from him, but for the powerful legendary to come himself… It seemed her freedom was over.

…

N glanced up sharply, but the expression on his face was closer to fear than alarm. James ceased his victory prowl and seated himself next to him, hidden ears quivering if they even existed at all. "Luffy. Did you hear that?"

"I heard Hypo burp! And it smelled like grass… does that make him a Hannibal?"

"…It's 'cannibal'. And I guess he would be saying eating his distant cousins, if you think about it that way." N frowned, gazing into the woods outside the dome window. His eyes widened, and he ran outside without another word.

Luffy shrugged, oblivious to the crisis going on behind his back, while James and Janis were freaking out over the people in the forest. "Jan is raw, raw raw rawr!"

"Abs, old! Sold?" N's Absol seemed reluctant to follow his trainer, but even more uneasy about staying with Luffy. Sand was fun, but too much got stuck in his poor hidden ears. He and Janis trotted out the open door of the Sand Dome, leaving behind the rubber boy, who was eagerly anticipating the relay race.

Outside the dome, N was already confronting his ex-superiors. "What are you doing? Put them down!"

Proton dropped Gold, and the boy's arm made a crunching sound as he hit the ground. The second Team Rocket member followed suit with Silver, managing to land him face-down in a large puddle of mud. "They're down now. Are you happy?"

"NO! You probably just broke his arm, and Silver's going to suffocate soon! What… why are you doing this?" The pained expression on the boy's face only encouraged Proton's fierce mood.

Stepping onto the unconscious redhead, the executive leader of Team Rocket waved his hands in the air dramatically. "They had the nerve to tie me up, and they tried to apprehend our Boss, here!"

N blinked. Capturing a member of Team Rocket was quite a feat, but what had Proton just said? "Leader… G-Giovanni? _You're _ Giovanni?!"

The second man tilted his bowler hat, a slight smirk twisting his face. "I've heard a lot about you, newbie. Never thought you'd be the type to care for pitiful little kids… Wonder what you would do if something were to happen to one of these boys… how tragic that would be, no?"

N set his jaw, teeth grinding in frustration. He couldn't do anything to help his friends; if he made a move, he'd only get pulverized, as well! Giovanni and Proton were known for their powerful partnership with dark- and fighting- type pokemon… N only had James, so he was at a disadvan-

Wait. Where was James?! The boy looked around frantically as Giovanni began laughing in a manner that only distressed him even more. "Looking for this?" He gestured to his Mankey, who was wrestling N's squirming Absol into the ground. "Did you honestly think we would let you keep such a powerful pokemon for your own personal gain?"

"Stop it!" N was ready to cry. Why had these men had to come and ruin everything? His nakama… his very first friends! What would happen if Giovanni did something drastic to them? "There's… there is no reason to get James involved in this," he score scowled, trying to hide his concern for the boys. But maybe there was still a chance. If their pokemon were still out and roaming about…

Proton chuckled to himself, seeing through the boy's act. "Not still thinking up clever little ways to rescue them, are you? As if we would leave a single one of their pokemon out of our special Master Balls!"

"_Hacker_!"

"It doesn't matter," Giovanni's voice growled. The man had retreated into the darkness of the forest, but N could still hear his voice. "Hacker or not, my Ditto let none of those worthless creatures escape once they were in his sight. We're only missing a few…"

The Ditto… he should have known! N's heart began pumping more rapidly as he considered what could be going on. Were they looking for Luffy? Could they be after Luffy's pokemon? It would be funny to see their reactions to Hyperbeam… But it would be best to first take advantage of this situation and think about Team Rocket's intentions later, when Silver wasn't being suffocated by Boss Feet. "Jan is raw," he whispered into the chill air. He still had no idea what Janis' newest catchphrase meant; only Luffy apparently understood it, but it was better than 'war'…

"Raw? Jan is raw?" A small voice piped up from a neon green bush, and N sighed in relief. Janis was still free and could try to rescue the boys, but this brought up more complications… The Ralts had been with Luffy in the Sand Dome. If Janis was out here, surely…

The intercom of the nearby building fizzled on, drawing everyone's attention. "Coming in second place, Team N! And for first place… Team Luffy! Congratulations! Team Luffy beat-"

"EVERYBODY! Yesh, thank you! Thank you! And I couldn't have done it without my good friend, N-" Luffy's voice was suddenly cut off by the squeal of a Slowpoke. After a fuzzy silence on the intercom, the boy began to speak once more, more calmly this time. "Yes, if I could have the Team Rocket member who was watching me in the Sand Dome… Could he come here now?" N knees went weak with relief that Luffy wasn't outside as well; that his plan might actually have a chance…

Proton was glaring at N as soon as the sound clicked off, popping his Murkrow out of its pokeball. "You're the grunt he saw, aren't you? That your last little friend, huh?" He still hadn't seen Janis yet. N closed his eyes, praying there was the slightest chance of success. Silver would be dead soon, if he wasn't rolled over!

"Hey, are you listening?!" The executive threw his bird forward, striking N in the face. James whined from his headlock under the Mankey as blood tricked down his trainer's face.

The sound crackling on and off, everyone stared at N while cries of, "Get him, Hypo," "Poke pokey," and anguished masculine screams sounded in the background.

The Murkrow hadn't moved, but clear surprise showed on its face. Digging its talons in deeper, he turned to Proton and chirped, "SlowpokeTail!"

Under the cover of the black wings, N blinked. Something about this had just taken a turn for the worse… Gold or Silver would have said something along the lines of that being the worst thing anyone could ever have said, but for the life of him, N could not imagine why.

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOD!"

…Ok. Now he could.

Luffy came barreling out of the central PokeAthlon Dome, eyes glazed over and hands outstretched. He shot straight past N, snatching up the Murkrow on the way and stuffing it into his mouth. As he disappeared into the small hut next to the National Park, N fought the urge to yell after his friend that his own pokemon could provide a better tail than the poisonous bird currently in his mouth.

"Well, that was odd," Giovanni muttered, stepping out of the shadowed woods with a writhing Ralts in his hands.

Dangling by the scruff of his neck, Janis couldn't even bite his captor. He reluctantly let himself be pulled into a Speed Ball with a mournful, "Raw…" N could only watch in horror as Giovanni capped the lid on his friend's last hope. Those blasted hacks! And they were no doubt the reason why Janis' hair had seemed different as he was pulled in…

The last chance they had was Luffy and Hypo, but N did not anticipate their help anytime soon. He could see Hyperbeam sleeping in the dome all the way from the woods…and Luffy had attempted to ingest a pokemon only slightly less toxic than a Muk. Gold and Silver… N gasped, tears streaming down his face. Except… it wasn't just tears?

"I thought there was something odd about that shrub… But Proton, are you seeing what I'm seeing?!" Giovanni smirked, pocketing Janis' new capsule home as he resumed his position on Silver's back. "That ex-grunt… is an even better hacker than ourselves!"

What were these men talking about?! The ex-grunt's enraged expression spoke for itself. His superior waved an idle hand.

"Oh, how forgetful of me! Your friend is suffering from asphyxiation while I'm going on about blood hacks… dreadfully sorry." His side-smile was replaced by a malicious grin as he continued; "Tell me your secret, and then I'll let him up."

N blanched. Secret? They thought he was using a hack just because he was bleeding?! "I… all I did was take the Pidgey Express down here from Unova…"

"He's lying, he's lying," a purple blob muttered from somewhere near Proton. The executive seemed pleased, and he lifted the Ditto up high.

"Mr Fatso says you're lying, kid. Tell us the truth or the boy pays…" Proton threw his pokemon at Giovanni and it encased his head for a few seconds. Moments later, an identical man was standing next to the leader of Team Rocket. He adopted the same twisted smile and eased the real Boss off of the face-down redhead.

"Boy pays," he agreed in the same gravelly voice, landing a few heavy stomps on the boy. N gritted his teeth in frustration; he was about done with this. Even if that Mankey came after him, he wasn't going to let Silver get beaten up anymore!

He rushed forward, only to slam into the back of a sudden extremely fat, blue pokemon. "What the… Giovanni, move this Snorlax or I will…" He paused, unable to think of any threats fierce enough to scare his old leader. "Can you please move this fat thing?" Receiving no response, N glared up at the sleeping monster and pulled out his relatively new PokeGear. That sketchy Flute Music application better work… if it didn't get any signal, he wasn't sure what he would do about this situation. And the suspicious shuffling noises coming from the other side of the pokemon didn't bode well…

A scratchy tune of ugly notes screeched out of the speakers as soon as N switched on his device. "What the flipping-" He stopped, gazing up nervously at the trembling Snorlax for fear of getting crushed by the awakening beast. The terrible pro-evolution song seemed to be having an effect on it… an effect completely opposite what it was originally intended for. "Whoa… a Munch…"

N never could remember the name of that pokemon, but it was rare indeed… And now the Snorlax was in that pre-evolution form. Proton gasped; he and Giovanni revealed behind the considerably smaller shape. "Boss… Look what happened to Corny!"

It was heartwarming to think that Team Rocket members might nickname their pokemon, but for the leader to give such terribly endearing names, N knew they had to have been stolen. Hacked, more like it. "Your… Uh, Corny, is quite special now. Aren't you going to thank me, for being such a good little grunt?" He was getting worried about the way his friends were carelessly slung over the adult's shoulders… And Silver didn't seem to be breathing.

"What do you expect, a gold medal? Ha! That's what the PokeAthlon is for, kid. Get back to guarding the radio tower and forget about these runts. Trust me, the world is better off without them…" So saying, Giovanni and Proton disappeared into the woods, taking with them two boys and six pokemon N had grown rather close to…

A small Metapod hopped out of the brambles, a Safari Ball clenched tightly in its mouth. "Flapper," it whined pitifully. N felt a stab of pain in his heart. Why was the world so cruel? Allowing nakama to be separated by such a terrible lot…

"Come here, little guy. You must be Gold's, huh?" The bug nodded sadly, scrambling into N's arms on his tired, pointy, foot. "…Don't worry. We'll get him back. Team Rocket won't get away with this! Not while I'm around…"

Flapper chirped mournfully, and the trainer shook his head. "I'm not sure. He may still be out there, eating that bird. If he's still alive and hasn't been caught as well, he'll probably be sick for a while. Nothing serious, but it's all up to us now."

Pokey and Hypo crept up next to him, eyes sad. N was too surprised that Hyperbeam woke up by himself to remember the last pokemon. As punishment, he received a wet Tail Whip in the face. "Babby… Jan is war?! Raw is Jan…"

"Um, yeah. Sorry, you guys. It's all up to _us_ now! If we want to stop those evildoers, our only option is to do it without Luffy!" …Although now that he thought about it, Luffy had never been much help in a battle, anyway. He was mostly there for encouragement… but wasn't that what every trainer was for? N smiled painfully at his new team, realizing he was missing the rubber pokemon already. Though his teacher couldn't be far off, N would be alone on this mission. It surprised him that in such a short time, he had become so dependent on other people being with him. And James… But he was doing this for all the stolen pokemon! "Let's go!"

"Poke-Slowpoke!"

"Flap-Mapod!"

"Babs-Mill!"

"Hypo-Chiko BEAM!"

* * *

N BLEEDS… O.o


	24. Chapter 24

Sorry I'm so late! ^~^ Got Pokemon Y…

HollyDoor: Sorry for the late update, and thank you for reviewing! ^-^

* * *

The Murkrow wobbled down the path cautiously, her visit to the PokeCenter still taking effect. Luffy trudged along next to her, very put out and ashamed. "Sorry for trying to eat you," he said again. The Murkrow could have repeated it back at him; she'd heard it enough already; but the novelty of the phrase had long since faded.

"My goodness, Boss! You look terrific," she chirped instead, reciting the old compliments her master had always rained upon Giovanni. She had only been trying to tell the rubber boy to take her back to Proton, but Luffy took it the completely wrong way.

"You want to join my team now? After all I've done to you? That's great!" Seizing the little bird, he wrapped her in impossibly long arms. "I'm going to call you 'Kim'!"

The Murkrow looked content with being called such a mundane, normal name. After being shunned by other pokemon because she hatched from an egg that had belonged to humans; and ignored by Proton during most of her time with him… any nickname was a beautiful thing. She only worried about what Proton would do when he saw her with this weirdo, whom she still wasn't certain about traveling with…

…

The boy opened an eye, finding himself unable to do anything else. His arms felt tight, as if someone was holding them down. There was an incredible sense of loss when he didn't see Cinders or Sparky anywhere nearby. They would most certainly have been lighting up the room, but he could see little more than the dark gray bricks of the wall pressed against his face. His mouth felt dry and cracked, so he licked his lips and whispered an experimental, "Hello," into the dark.

Something shifted behind him, pushing against his feet. "Gold? Is that you?" With a start, the boy realized that it was a person that was shoving him into the wall.

"Where are we? And who… Silver?" The boy frowned, trying to twist around and failing. Apparently someone didn't want him leaving anytime soon…

He could hear Silver moving around behind him. "Are your ropes any looser than mine?"

"Um… I don't know how tight yours are! That was a pretty stupid question." As soon as he said it, Gold winced. It wasn't right to be so curt with his friend! As far as he knew, Silver had led a rich, sheltered life and had never seen adventure movies where protagonists got kidnapped without their pokemon… He could start crying any minute now, and that would make Gold feel just terrible.

To his surprise, his friend responded immediately. "Right, sorry. Then, can you test mine? Our bonds should be close enough…" Gold blinked in surprise. The way he had said that, so calmly… as if he wasn't even concerned about the possibility of never seeing his home or family again! But maybe it was because his nakama was here, and he was trying to put on a brave facade… All right. Gold would play along.

"Um… are these your fingers?" He asked, groping around until he felt something stiff. Silver grunted affirmation, and the boy began working on the knot. "Do you think Luffy did this? I mean, as some sort of prank?"

"I doubt it," was the husky answer. "As if Luffy would do something like this! No, my friend, I suspect this is a direct result of your actions against that Team Rocket grunt…"

Gold cringed. His friend was right. This probably_ was_ his fault, and there was no sense in blaming it on Luffy. But Team Rocket was so maddeningly frustrating… he just couldn't help tying up that one guy! However, that second man… As soon as he had seen that other grunt, why had he felt that strange sinking feeling in his stomach?

"Good job," his companion whispered, letting the loosened ropes slip away. Of course Gold had done a good job! No one learns to tie complex knots without knowing how to undo them! But the person who'd tied this had used a simple double overhand. It had been child's play to unravel!

"So what now, genius? Just gonna leave me here?" He glared at Silver in the dim light, watching the redhead stand and head for the door.

Silver waved a hand, silencing him. "I'm checking for guards! Hmm… There are quite a lot…"

"Why would you do something like that?" Apparently, Silver had seen a _ few_ kidnapping movies…

The light from under the crack in the door gave the redhead enough illumination to work on Gold's bonds to pass the time. After several exasperated tugs on his bonds, the boy understood that these knots were not as simple as his own had been. "What the…"

"Need help?" Gold smirked at the redhead's crestfallen expression. "By the way you were pulling at it, it's safe to say that you're working on my favorite knot! Just listen to me, and I'll lead you through the steps to untie it…"

…

Luffy led Kim the Murkrow to her downcast new companions near the irritating Sudowoodo. The Chikorita from earlier wasn't anywhere near as cheerful -or as scratchy- as he had been a few hours earlier, and wasn't even trying to attack the rock-type tree in front of him. Neither was the Slowpoke, though that was to be expected. Luffy's Ralts was nowhere in sight…

The instant the pokemon saw their trainer, there was a mad scramble for the safety of his arms. Babs catapulted off of a launch pad from somewhere in the woods, landing on the familiar straw hat and digging in her claws with the intention of never letting go again. A random Metapod hopped up to the boy, beaming a hopeful gaze at the boy while he tried to climb up his leg.

N trudged out of the forest to find Luffy with two type enemies on his hat, bug teeth embedded in his shorts -with the bug still attached- a pink thing wrapped around his shirt, and a small black bird fluttering around his hair. "Uh, Luffy…? Who… Why is that Murkrow here if you just ate it?!"

"I didn't eat Kim! I almost… hey, it doesn't matter! What's wrong, Hypo? I'm glad you're so happy to see me after just a few minutes, but-" Luffy was knocked over by an onslaught of pokemon cries and hysterical tackles.

N trudged over to them while the rubber boy was still digesting the rushed news. "The leader of Team Rocket… has taken our friends. He even took their pokemon, as well as James! Janis, too, Luffy. I'm sorry…"

His nakama was silent for a long moment, sliding his straw hat over his eyes as soon as Babs and Hypo had bounded off. Then, "That's great! Now we can knock all the conspiracy people out in one place!" He grinned widely, the flashy show of bravado startling everyone.

"But Luffy… Surely you realize, we don't even know where to look! And our best sniffer was probably Cinders, so we can't find them that way… This wasn't N's only reason for hesitation. His friend was responding so well to an occurrence that would surely daunt any other pokemon; just look at Babs! She was scared out of her mind, yet Luffy wasn't even batting an eyelash. N stalled for time as he contemplated the best way to comfort his friend. "…How do you propose we start our search?"

"Cinders can smell, but Murkrow is even smellier," Luffy laughed, rubbing Kim from her perch on his shoulder. "She's been watching people for most of her life! Haven't you, girl? Plus, she can fly, so what are we waiting for?"

N felt like face-palming. "'Fly' doesn't work that way. You have to get Chuck's gym badge first, and-" His valiant efforts at persuading his nakama were ignored, as Kim was already picking up Luffy by the back of his vest. "H-how does that even work?!"

"Come back, guys!" Luffy recalled all of the Pokemon except for the Metapod, thus lessening the weight Kim had to carry. "Hey N, can you take that guy?"

The former Rocket grunt sputtered helplessly. Of course he couldn't carry a bug all the way to wherever Luffy was headed without a flying pokemon! "No way! What about me?!"

"Oh, right. Use this!" The boy whispered something to his bird, who proceeded to use Double Team. A second, slightly see-through Murkrow flapped over to N, waiting for him to grab ahold of its feet before shooting after Luffy and Kim. Gold's pokemon hopped into his shirt as they took off. N didn't even bother to ask how the Double Team thing made sense; he had given up on Luffy Logic a long time ago…

"Hey… is that blood on your face?!"

…

Two intense hours of weary searching later, the trainers were back at New Bark Town. They hadn't been to Ecruteak or any cities onward because Luffy insisted that Janis had to be with them when they saw the Kimono Girls (the Ralts had a crush on every single one of them). To N, it was a very pointless argument, so he had gone along with his teacher's whimsicality. "There are three houses and a laboratory here… where to now?"

"Gold's house."

N frowned, dropping from the duplicate Murkrow as Luffy had with the real one. "What, to tell his mother he's missing in action? That would only worry her… I think we should check the lab, first."

"Let's compromise," Kim offered. It was a phrase Proton had used with the dim grunts quite often. "How about we meet right in the middle?"

N nodded reluctantly. "That's actually a good idea. We could start at that home, and then work our way up to the lab…" Luffy grunted in agreement, staring at his intelligent bird with open admiration.

The first house they broke into elicited a scream from somewhere inside the refrigerator, and the trainers beat a hasty retreat. Only Hypo risked a venture inside, and he came back out with a glob of mayonnaise stuck to his nose.

The second home supposedly belonged to a girl named Lyra, though N seriously doubted she was the one who paid the household bills. There was a woman with an old man who looked suspiciously like the gym leader Pryce inside, building up some serious chemistry. The boys apologized profusely and retreated once again. It was around that time that Luffy noticed that Hyperbeam's scales had softened around the mayo splotch, so he sent him back to the first house for more.

…

Janis continued to scan the room of his new master, avoiding looking at the man himself. Giovanni just had an evil look about him… Janis resolved to kick him in the place it would hurt the most the first chance he got.

James was huddled in the far corner, trying to learn Backstab from a familiar-looking Ditto. Janis was fairly certain 'Backstab' wasn't even a move, and the technique merely involved a jabbing motion with the scythe on the Absol's head. James looked thoroughly miserable.

"Jan is raw," the Ralts whispered reassuringly. Unfortunately, a Whismur overheard and sounded the alarm. Softer than a Cyndaquil's cry, it did nothing to alert Giovanni and his lady friend…

The Absol had perked up instantly upon hearing the secret code, and he responded with a low growl. "Jerms," translated loosely to, 'Can we leave yet? I'm bored.'

Janis knew that no Team Rocket member, be it Boss or grunt, would ever release a pokemon as valuable as James. "Rawr," he sighed, longing for a chance at freedom. If only he knew where they were, he might have a slim chance of finding their trainers again. But he was missing Sparky and Babs so badly, already! How could any man work on such terrible conditions?! Not a girl in sight…

As if on cue, a dazzling black beauty soared through the window, setting the Ralts' heart on fire. "Where in Johto is Proton?!" She screeched, beating her lovely wings. A single feather drifted out of the storm of wingbeats, and Janis picked it up wonderingly. How could such a beautiful thing exist?!

He dropped to the ground, reverent of the Murkrow. She glanced at him quickly, but he saw the brief flash in her eyes that revealed he meant something to her. Awed, Janis whirled into a Tornado of passionate love, tearing up the carpet and threatening the Wii system in the nearby corner.

"Stop it, idiot!"

The rude words did nothing to dampen his spirits; if anything, the Ralts spun harder. His dance went on for approximately sixteen seconds before it was brought to an abrupt end by his tripping on the Whismur.

Almost immediately after the *thud* had reverberated throughout the house, there was a knock at the door.

"Hello? Anybody in here?"

"Why are we knocking on this door, you dumb pokemon?! We barged into all of the others!"

"Yeah, but I've met this guy's mother before…"

Janis and James were on instant alert, though there were few outward displays of their excitement. Janis slowly propped himself up on his elbows, ready for a mad dash to the door. The Absol had followed suit, muscles tensed and ready for his own personal race.

The Whismur and Ditto were extremely bewildered, with no idea what was going on. Only the Murkrow managed to keep a straight face, in accordance with her marvelous relation to the Dark Type. Meanwhile, Giovanni and his companion were dashing down the stairs, hand-in-hand. It sickened Janis…

"Hey… did you hear that?" A suspicious voice sounded from the closet, and the door began to creak open. Janis was instantly there, kicking it shut so forcefully that it jammed, protecting his angel from potential harm. "What the…"

Downstairs, a loud conversation was taking place. "Ready to pay the ransom?" Giovanni was only distinguishable by the smug lilting of his voice as he taunted James' trainer.

"I've agreed to no such thing. And why did you tell me to find you without telling me where you were?!"

The sound of popping knuckles drifted up the stairs, and Luffy's voice rang out. "Forget that. Just tell us where our nakama are!"

"I can't. You have to agree to my terms, first."

"Why, you…"

James couldn't keep still any longer. Hearing his master sounding so positively furious overrode all the data that had been transferred to him by his new pokeball, and he darted down the stairs. One Backstab in the place where it would hurt the most rendered a certain Team Rocket boss immobile for an indefinite period of time.

"James! Oh, thank goodness! Where are the rest of you guys?"

At N's heartfelt question, the Ralts lying motionless upstairs broke all ties with the ideas of his corrupted pokeball, as well. Gripping the Murkrow feather tightly, he shot down towards the familiar voices, and his trusted trainer. "JANISRAW!"

The Ralts swept past the ugly lady, his eyes streaming with almost-tears. His species had it so hard… If an emotion pokemon started crying, everyone… Suddenly, openly sobbing in front of the Team Rocket boss didn't seem so bad. Janis began bawling his eyes out, causing a wave of uncontrollable sobbing among the couple and N; the latter of which hadn't needed much to set him off after being reunited with his beloved nakama. Luffy was unaffected, as he had the Ralts himself wrapped/glued around/to his head with mayonnaise; the latter the result of a grateful Chikorita rubbing against his face.

Now Giovanni was both in a great deal of pain and publicly humiliated. Not to mention the Murkrow droppings in his hair… Luffy experienced a drastic mood swing upon seeing the man when he finally tugged Janis away. "Shishishi! Hey, you're… huh, that's kind of sad…"

Once everyone was weeping, there was no chance of anyone hearing the banging on the closet door upstairs… Except for the Whismur, who immediately broke out into his alarm…


	25. Chapter 25

Oh hey, I'm back! ^-^ Sorry I'm so late…

Sparkyflame101: Thank you so much! ^-^ Glad you like it, but why would you think I wouldn't keep updating? I'm going to stick with this FanFic until the bitter end! Updates may be uncertain, but I will never leave you guys in the lurch… ^-^

And sorry, caring16 and RyuNoRainbow… Didn't mean to flaunt my game, guess I was just a bit excited… D;

Um, chapter is… suggestive? T time! And updates will come out weekly on Mondays from now on (Yes, I know it's not a Monday)!

* * *

As expected, Janis was put in The Box… not only to clear up space, but also because everyone was utterly furious with him for the sobbing scene. Luffy hadn't minded it, though, and it was only through the power of twelve Razz Berries that he was able to be talked into depositing Janis' little capsule into the machine. Still getting used to the whole concept of electrical devices, the idea of leaving a nakama in a PC for an indefinite period of time was hard for the rubber boy to take.

He soon turned out to be the one in the right, though, for as soon as the Ralts had been deposited in the PC box of the Cherrygrove City PokeCenter, the power went out.

"JANIIIS! Can you hear me, buddy?! Can you get out? Answer me!" Luffy had pounded on the computer hysterically. It had taken James the Absol and the entire population of Cherrygrove City to drag the boy out of the building. N had led him away, but the rubber hands had clung to the device for a long stretch* of Route 29.

Now back in New Bark Town, the ex-Rocket grunt explained electricity to his friend; "We can't do anything when the power's out."

"I'll make some more power, then," Luffy grumbled. His grip on the PC had been lost, but that didn't mean he had given up on his nakama.

"It doesn't work that way. It has to be electrical power, keeping the PC running. Only a battery can keep one going for a while…" N snorted at that. "And we can't use batteries with those pieces of junk because they're completely outdated! Heck, they could break any second…"

That did it. "We have to get him out of there! Hurry, hurry! Someone make the eclecticity work again before my pokeman disappears!" Luffy tore around the house, stomping on the tied-up Giovanni with each lap he made.

The lady of the house who had been in cahoots with Giovanni finally spoke up. "I bet Gold could repair the system up there. He was always so good with machines…"

"Gold?! You know him? Yeah, well, I guess you live in his house, so you must be his mother…" Furrowing his brow, N recalled why he and Luffy had ventured to New Bark Town in the first place. "What about a kid with long red hair… by the name of Silver? Have you heard of or seen a redhead lately?"

The woman grinned nervously, looking down to Giovanni for assistance. "Um, I guess…"

There was a crash from upstairs; Luffy had infiltrated and ascended the forbidden staircase. During the frantic sounds of pillaging that ensued, Giovanni took on a very ticked-off expression, both from being tied up and because of his feeble accomplice. "Did you hide the goods?!" He hissed through clenched teeth, "For heaven's sake, woman, that kid is going to find them!"

"I'm sorry," she whispered, panic-stricken. Suddenly a realization dawned on her and she whispered, "Wait… the _goods _goods?! I, I think I just left them in the…" She paled and darted for the staircase, nearly tripping on the carpet in her haste.

Giovanni grumbled angrily from his position on the floor. "What did she think I meant? All the money she's been stealing from that boy with the use of a special PokeGear app chip she shouldn't even have?!" Noticing N staring at him, the boss rolled over and began muttering, in a softer tone. "But those are some creepy kids… acting like people who talk to themselves are weirdos or something! They ought to know their place, and that place is _not _in the stupid closet _she_ insisted on putting them in!"

That was enough for N. He took off after the woman, hopping steps two at a time in contrast to James' four. "So you heard that, too, huh? Well, let's go get them!" He and his Absol burst into the room, and were momentarily startled by the state they found it in.

Luffy was gripping a woman tightly with rubbery arms locked at the elbows while trying to flip over a small blue bed in a corner with his feet. A large TV stood against the other side of the room, currently shattered and yet still managing to play a Wii game that looked like a terribly advanced Mario sequel. A door that could only be the closet door was shaking, as were four familiar-looking pokeballs on the wooden floor nearby. And right in front of the door, doing most of the shaking, was Gold's new Metapod.

"Stay back, ma'am. James, you know what to do…" Waving away the flailing woman, N directed his Absol to the jammed closet door. Flapper hopped back to watch as James readied his Slash, disregarding the earlier shaking of the door that had seemed to result from a strong force pushing against it…

The Absol rushed at the closet suddenly, just as Luffy lost his grip on the woman. She rushed forward desperately, only to see the door explode into thousands of sharp little fragments from all the pressure inflicted on it from both sides. Two figures tumbled out of the wreckage, carried forward by their own momentum from straining against the blockade that was no longer in place.

The first boy crashed right into the woman, and they must certainly would have been able to stay standing like that, with the woman supporting the boy. Unfortunately, a certain redhead was caught off guard by the sudden release as well, and flew into both of them from behind.

The woman found herself lying on the ground with a young boy's face pressed into her chest. Realizing his awkward position at once, he flushed and tried in vain to pull himself off of her, but there was another boy sprawled out on top of himthat prevented both of them from doing anything. "G-g-g… GET OFF OF ME!"

"Yeah, stop it, guys! That's rude!" Luffy made a disgusted face as he yanked his friends from the lady. "Hiding in her closet and jumping out on her… I thought you were better than that!"

N shook his head in amusement. Luffy was unlucky enough to be the witness of the wildest misunderstandings… "Just help the poor woman up. I'm sure she can give us valuable information about Team Rocket once she's more comfortable downstairs."

"N… you sound like a Rocket executive," Silver groaned, pulling himself into a sitting position against the bed. "…Specifically one that hits on the ladies!" He managed a small grin, gazing around at his nakama. "Everyone's here… are these our pokeballs?" He picked up the capsules next to the closet, giving Gold and his victim an odd look.

The first boy was moaning, holding his throbbing head where the woman had whacked him with the nearby table lamp. As he recovered, he noticed that the woman was attempting to bore a hole in his face with her stare. "What… What are you doing, Mom?!"

"MOM?!" Silver cried, immediately regretting his Team Rocket joke.

The woman stood up, flustered by the three boys in the room. "Of course I'm his mother! Who did you think I was, wandering around what is clearly the Gold residence?"

"Wait, wait… Your family name is 'Gold'?" Luffy scratched his head thoughtfully. "I thought Gold was just called Gold, and his mom was called something that sounded like a mom name. But if you're his mom and your family name is Gold, then… you guys are all called Gold?!"

A large Quilava, fresh from his pokeball, tackled the rubber boy from the side to silence him before he exploded everyone's minds. Silver finally sat back on the bed next to N and his friend whose name had been sorely overused. "Luffy… this is called Gold's house, even though he doesn't own it. It's one of the weird quirks about this town and Pallet Town…"

"Well, why didn't you say so, Silver?! Hi, lady! What's your name, then?" Luffy stuck out a hand to the mother.

"…Gold. Goldeen, really, but I'm called Gold for short."

Silver blanched. "You were named after a pokemon?!"

Goldeen shot a cold glare at him. "Yes. And what were you named after; a cheap metal?"

"Silver is not cheap! It can be worth three hundred beli per ounce, lady, and don't you forget it!"

N stared at his teacher. "Beli? What's that?"

The room was silent for a long moment, with only the ringing echoes of Giovanni's extremely profane exclamations from downstairs as he struggled with his bonds.

"Beli was the form of currency used in ancient times, by the people of the Golden Age of the Pirates. Few bills have been found, but the legendary money's value and history has been recorded in numerous ancient texts," Kim recited, flapping her short black wings.

Luffy smiled warmly at his bird, long past being surprised by her incredible knowledge. "That's right… Wait, no it's not…" He began fishing around underneath his hat until his fingers found the hidden fabric pocket where he kept his milk money. "These are beli!"

N fingered the small stack of bills wonderingly, and said in awe, "Wow! I've read about these, but this paper currency is in perfect condition and they certainly _look_ real! Where did you get such incredible artifacts?"

His teacher inched away uncomfortably. "Um, I borrowed it? From the street gang in my hometown…?"

"I knew it! Untrustworthy little rascal, you! Stealing priceless currency like that, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Goldeen made a grab for Luffy's hands and Gold and Silver went into hyper-face-palm mode in the background. At at least twenty slaps per second, they seemed intent on turning their faces completely red before someone won the beli battle.

As it turned out, the champion was Babs. Appearing out of nowhere, the Marill streaked past the other combatants in a blur of speed and had the bills in her fist before Luffy could even blink. "Ba~bs!" She tilted her head, looking around for the Ralts she had been showing off for. "Jan is whar?"

"Shut it, ya crazy water-type! We were _using _those toys and we need them, so you'd better give them back without so much as a peep," Gold's mother growled, holding out a hand to the Marill on the bed. Gold and Silver instinctively stood up and crossed to the other side of the room to avoid the wrath of either of the two dangerous parties.

…Or the third party. Luffy lowered his fists to bypass the ancient law of not hitting girls and kicked the woman in the shins. "Hey, Babs knows what money is, and you can't threaten my nakama or my stuff! I'm a pirate, and pirates don't stand for this kind of thing!"

"Oh, yeah? Well aren't you the little rebel? It's not nice to kick the ladies, though," Goldeen hissed, her voice frighteningly sinister. Her cold eyes glared at Gold and Silver, who were pressed against the wall as far back as they could manage. "What are you staring at, little boys? And Gold, don't think I'll let you off the hook for disrespecting Giovanni and me just because you're my son!"

Luffy stepped up to her and clapped loudly right next to her ears.

"What was that for?!"

N snickered from the TV corner with James. "You said he couldn't hit or kick you, so now he's going for your sensitive eardrums, instead! Good going, Luffy!"

"Huh? Oh, no; I was just congratulating her for using discipline on her kid." Luffy grinned.

Gold had to protest. "Hey, it's _me _she's chewing out, and there's no good reason! I've been locked in my own closet this whole time! How on earth is her 'discipline' worthy of congratulations?!"

His only reply was a confused stare. "I dunno… does sarcasm still exist?"

There was no way Gold was going to admit he hadn't picked up on the sarcasm -which seemed extremely out of character for Luffy- so he turned to N instead. "Can you _ple__ase _do something about this?!"

"Eh. James, use Yawn."

"Ja~mes!"

…

Silver finally managed to get a word in in his friends' conversation after Goldeen was asleep. "N… we forgot to tell you, didn't we? Luffy is from the past… He was brought to our time period by a legendary pokemon called Cebi."

"Celebi, actually," Gold put in. "Cebi was the nickname Luffy gave her… it?"

N nodded thoughtfully, glancing at the cash in Babs' hands. "So those are real beli. I don't suppose you would care to elaborate on why you took them from other kids in your neighborhood?"

"I didn't take them!" Luffy folded his arms and added after a brief pause, "I just asked the guys for a little money for food, and then they sort of just _gave_ me the money… And I just told them I was hungry!" He shrugged. "They're nice guys, really. They know being hungry is no fun… But they gave me too many beli, so I kept that change after a few meat pies to save it for later."

His nakama could only stare at him. Luffy had never told them this before! Silver was especially bewildered. The friendly ball of rubber who had a personality of pure gold… had been a poor beggar in his hometown?! "Luffy, did you have a house?"

"Of course! Well, sort of… But I thought we were going to fix the blackout in Cherrygrove City. Why are we sitting around and talking about me?"

Gold shrugged "I'm not sure what's going on here, what with the closet thing. But anything that has to do with-"

"Wait, buddy! Why were you in that closet with Silver, at your own house? That's just really suspicious…" Luffy frowned, circling his friend as he stroked Hypo on his shoulder. "I mean, not that I care what you do, but…"

"Goodness, Luffy, it's not like that at all! Are you insane?! We got kidnapped!" Silver waved his arms about, gesturing at the sleeping Goldeen and the ropes in the closet. Luffy peered in at them with an almost comical expression of doubt.

"You sure?"

Gold sighed. "I'm positive. Now, are we going to Cherrygrove, or not?"

N shook his head in amusement. "You know that's not even a question for Luffy. Look, he's already gone!

…

Cebi huddled in the small corner of her prison. Spacious as it was, there was no way of escape; no chance of traveling through time to escape. She understood it was punishment for her misbehavior, but something felt off about it all. Luffy and his nakama got along well, even though Dialga had always said that humans would end up neglecting their pokemon. There was no chance of the boy in the straw hat leaving her in the dust; she just knew it. And if he ever accepted her, she knew she would never leave him again. Not for Dialga, not for anybody! The boy in the straw hat with the powers of a legendary pokemon… he could be cursed by Darkrai for all Cebi cared, yet she run would still stay by his side until his dying day!

If only she could get out of this cell… Dialga had said two weeks, and then she would be free. Not that the time mattered to her; she could revisit Luffy in the lost time once she got out, so long as she didn't change history. She only worried… what if he forgot about her in that time span? He'd seemed so happy with those other pokemon. Would he even care about her anymore? They hadn't known each other for very long at all, so it certainly was possible he would turn her down… Feeling completely hopeless all of a sudden, Cebi wrung her antenna and buried her head in her small dainty hands, finally falling asleep with tears pooling in her eyes…

* * *

*No pun intended

Thanks for waiting, you guys… ^-^


	26. Chapter 26

caring16: Oh, uh, pun was WAAAAY back near the beginning; the asterisk after "…but the rubber hands had clung to the PC box for a long _stretch _of Route…" …Heh, heh?

RyuNoRainbow: Ah, I didn't feel like editing that last chapter to make it flow better… but I'll get on that after Thursday. Sorry…

So I'm awhole week late, huh? This whole 'weekly update' thing isn't working too well. How about I just post new chapters when I feel like it? That's essentially what I've been doing, anyway… ^-^

* * *

Janis huddled in his confines, longing for the company of his friends. Why had Luffy put him in such a terribly small place? He hadn't meant to be bad. This wasn't fair, but there was nothing he could do about it, so he figured a little nap wouldn't hurt…

It was too easy to drift off. Soon he was hearing the weeping of an angel in his heavenly dream; and not too far away, at all! His eyes flew open. The angel… was right next to him?!

…

"So, our best bet is to check in the woods, like that old guy said?"

Silver grunted, flipping open his PokeGear to check his messages. "Yeah, there's a power transformer that the PC runs on. Apparently, it was overgrown by the forest and whatnot… What the Gloom, Joey?!

N and Gold stopped awkwardly at the edge of Cherrygrove City, watching Silver run off ahead to beat up a certain someone for all the spam in his inbox. Luffy chuckled, rubbing James with his free hand while holding Babs with the other. "So we just run through the forest? Got it! Come on, Kim!" The rubber boy shot off into the woods, his pokemon trailing after him.

"What now? Should we chase him, or save the little boy?" N seemed like he was musing only to himself, so Gold stayed silent for a moment. Even though the morally right course of action would be rescuing Joey from the wrath of their friend, he wanted to see the irritating little kid suffer a little…

"Let's help Silver," he finally suggested, grinning slyly. N caught his expression and winced.

"What did your parents do to make you like this…? Oh, never mind." The memories of Goldeen burning fresh in his mind, the older boy nodded reluctantly. After Gold's most recent abuse at the hands of his mother, he was probably due for a break. "I guess the child _should _learn a thing or two about privacy… Shall we?"

Gold nodded eagerly, fingering his pokeball of choice. That little Rattata would never know what hit him! "Ready, Flapper?"

"Fla…?"

…

"_I'm hungry_!" Luffy's cry echoed through the forest, sending numerous Pidgey into the air in a panic. "Pokey… it's time!"

The long-nosed Slowpoke looked up from where he'd been drawing pictures in the dirt. Wagging his tail in an oblivious state, he yawned happily. "Poke?"

"No… I meant it's time to give up your tail! They say it's painless, so…" Luffy shrugged and waited patiently for a few seconds. When it became clear his pokemon was not going to assist in the process, he leaned over and yanked off the tail in one fluid motion. "Thank you!"

Pokey blinked, unaffected, and went back to his doodling. The small stump left behind by the tail wobbled back and forth, already growing another one. His trainer boggled at it for a while before losing interest to the new snack.

Babs had to avert her eyes; the whole situation too upsetting for her stomach. The same went for Kim, and they both stumbled farther into the woods, away from the immature boys. Only a few paces into the dark unknown, the girls stumbled into a large clearing. "Bab?"

"What is it?" Luffy trotted up next to them, gnawing on a dried piece of dough. Kim stared at it for a while before understanding that the boy had been duped. Pokey nodded from behind their trainer with an air of superiority, wagging his dough-coated tail mockingly.

But even the Slowpoke wasn't prepared for the sight they now beheld. "A mouse?" Luffy asked, his head flopping to the left in a state of severe bewilderment. "A mouse, eating a big box?"

His pokemon shook their heads, marvelling at the creature in front of them. It wasn't long before Babs realized what was going on, though. The small Pikachu wasn't just chewing up the tiny black Weedle trailing out of the box, but it was gaining power from it, too! What did people call those Weedle, again? Wires…?

"Huh. This Slowpoke Tail tastes different from other Slowpoke Tails," Luffy mused, his attention span for the odd creature already fizzled out. "I think… This Slowpoke Tail is in the _top percentage_ of Slowpoke Tails!" If Gold or Silver had been in the vicinity, they most certainly would have groaned and zapped the legendary into a pokeball to prevent further damage to their IQ. Since neither was present, Babs took responsibility and cracked him on the head with a rather large Farfetch'd stalk.

While their trainer moaned in the background, Pokey and Kim cautiously approached the stranger. "Poke? Slappoke," and "Kim-Kim Krow," translated roughly to, ' Are you hungry? You can eat my tail,' and 'That's not a tail and you know it!"

The little mouse stared at them for a moment before returning to his avid cord-chewing. "Puka!"

Luffy's pokemon looked at each other in confusion. That most certainly was _ not _a normal pokemon noise, and 'Shove off,' was _not _a very nice thing to say to friendly folks trying to help out… Kim turned a critical Mean Look on the offender, and he squealed with fright.

Luffy looked up from his dough to see the little pokemon scurrying off. "Hey, why'd you do that, Kim? I wanted to ask him about this box thing that… sort of reminds me of something, but I can't remember what." Pokey stared at him in disbelief. How could the boy miss such obvious details that were key elements to this mystery?!

"Poke! Po. Key. Pokey!" The Slowpoke gestured wildly to the electrical box, pointing out the peeling red paint, twisting wires, and nauseating smell. Luffy nodded slowly.

"That makes perfect sense! This _must_ be an old a PC box. Good thinking, buddy!" He rubbed his nakama on the head affectionately, and Pokey began to purr.

The bushes rustled, and a small yellow head popped out of the top, observing the scene with growing jealousy. The red cheeks sparked as he watched the ugliest creature imaginable get utmost care from an ignorant boy who knew nothing about the world…

"Piku!" He leapt out at the party, startling only the pink cat thing. The Murkrow had already sensed him coming, and a skillful Double Team on her part sent images of connected talons stretching around the clearing. A Chikorita that seemed to appear out of nowhere performed two Slashes in quick succession, knocking him to the ground.

Behind him, the pink thing had recovered from its shock and had begun prodding him with a maddeningly pink foot. The little white claw on the end of the pinkness seemed to be mocking him, and the Pikachu snarled at it. A furious Marill ran at him, whacking him in the head with a bobbed tail to send him flying.

"Puku…" The electric pokemon moaned, dragging himself away from the mob. The opposing pokemon glared at him, their eyes hostile and distrustful. He turned away, ashamed of his rude behavior and scared out of his mind of being mobbed again. There were too many of them, and if he fainted out here, the other pokemon he'd been avoiding for so long might find him-!

"It's all right," Luffy muttered, cradling him to his chest before the frightened mouse could flee again. "You're lost, aren't you? I'm going to help you get home…" Hypo watched them silently, wondering why Luffy wouldn't assist a lost Kimono Girl in a forest and yet would go all out for an annoying runt of a pokemon.

The runt was giving Luffy an odd look, however, as if the boy had completely misread his behavior. "Puka! Piku, ku." His pleas startled Luffy's pokemon, and they were instantly ashamed of her ruthless attack on the mouse.

"Don't worry. We'll find you some food, little guy. But did you say something about that big red thing there? Can you please make it work?" The rubber boy patted the electric pokemon gently, the small currents of joy coursing harmlessly through his hand.

…

"Hey, guys!"

Gold and N turned sheepishly to the sound of Luffy's approach, expecting a stern scolding for bullying the small Geodude at their feet. But when Luffy and his pokemon burst out of the forest, the boys were surprised to see a newcomer -but still no Janis. "What's that?"

"This is a… a Pukika, I think…" Luffy frowned, regarding the sleeping body in his bag. "He didn't really tell me, so that's what I'm gonna guess."

Gold nodded in bewilderment, the name being new to him. "That doesn't sound right. Did you base it off its cry?"

"No. He _almost_ cried, though." Luffy scratched his forehead thoughtfully. "Luckily I saved him first, but he's really hungry…"

N shook his head. Luffy wouldn't be this calm if he still didn't know how to save his Ralts. "So, I'm assuming you found the transformer?" The blank look he received was nearly enough to elicit a face-palm, but he managed to hold it in. "So… still nothing."

"Well, actually… We found a big red thing, and this Pukika was chewing on it, and then after a little misunderstanding we got it to work!" Luffy beamed, his hand on Pokey's head for some odd reason that N wasn't about to question.

Gold blinked. "So… it _is _fixed."

"What's fixed?"

…

The top-percentage Rattata had proved to be even weaker than a normal Rattata, so Gold had wandered ofF with the ex-Rocket grunt to find something else to beat up. That had left Silver to rant as he pleased about the importance of respect and consideration for the small allotment of time people receive on Earth; namely, the small amount of time people _don't _have to listen to someone else wasting _their _time. The boy hadn't really understood the concept, so a little force had been necessary in order to make sure the information stuck.

"Can we quit now?" Joey moaned, his fingers trembling from the exhaustive work and utter humiliation of knitting Croconaw sweaters.

Silver scowled to hear his name being called from further down the path. "I suppose that's enough for today, but I'm letting you off easy this time… Give me those!" He reclaimed his Hoppip-styled knitting needles and Mareep yarn, shoving them and the purple jumble deep into the Key Items pocket of his bag.

"What is it now, guys?" He stomped back to his friends, irritated that his torture session was over. A small bundle of electrical energy was thrust into his hands almost instantly, sending a jolt through his arms and neck. "What was that for?!" He glared at the pokemon now in his hands, regretting the decision to remove his gloves earlier.

Luffy beamed at him. "Aww, he _likes _you! Hey, N! Check it out! Chuck likes Silver…"

"Chuck?!" The redhead fixed a dirty gaze on the little pokemon before suddenly realizing what he was staring at. "Luffy… where did you find this?"

"Huh? Oh, him? In the woods over there! Why do you ask?"

Silver took a deep breath, excitement turning his ears as pink as little Chuck's cheeks. "This is a Pikachu; an extremely rare pokemon in Johto… I can't believe you found- …Nah, scratch that; I _can_ believe you found one, but this one is very unusual."

"Hey, since when have you been an expert on rare pokemon?"

The redhead ignored Gold's question, already running his fingers over the tail and ears of the Pikachu. "See how his ears have little tufts at the ends? And same with the tail… he also has brown markings where he shouldn't have anything here at the tip."

"So he's broken?" Luffy was crestfallen.

"Oh, no, no! This, um,_ Chuck_, is a very special Pikachu, Luffy!" Silver ruffled the pokemon's fur, already taken by him. "And if he was able to reboot the transformer; that's even more proof of how amazing he is!"

His friend nodded. "All right then. You can take care of him, Silver."

"W-what?! Are you sure?" The redhead looked at Chuck again, and the bright eyes won him over. "Okay, if you say so…"

Luffy smiled to see Toto and Sluggy fawning over the newcomer. "All right, Gold; N. Can we go see if my box-thing works so we can let Janis out?"

…

Cebi's conversation with the handsome angel was cut short by the overwhelming power of the Mover-thing. The invisible fingers gripped her by her dainty wings, dragging her in a slow circle before pulling her into a party slot. Strangely enough, the other five party slots were empty, save for the second one when the angel got pulled in with her.

The angel himself looked relatively calm for a divine creature who had been so terribly manhandled. Cebi firmly believed that it wasn't right for angels to be lifted out of a PC box by one leg… Even though the angel had no wings now, she was certain he had or would have them someday; that would be the time to lift him by a leg, to avoid damaging his feathers.

She only wondered why the angel had been placed in Dialga's PC box. Was he a messenger from Arceus? She considered calling out to him, but then the party box exited the PC and everything went dark.

…

"It's just one of those things we'll never understand," Gold muttered, stepping back from his friend with a smile to allow Luffy some time alone with his two lost nakama. Silver followed him, already applying Luffy's example of a passionate pokemon hug to Chuck. N sat outside, watching the sun set over the water, at peace. With James nestled up against him, all was well.

The boy in the baseball cap finally cracked open his pokeball downstairs, seating himself on a sofa. "You did good today, Flapper…"

"Perr!" His pokemon cried, fluttering over his head.


End file.
